Why do girls in Caribbean countries do better at school than boys, when in most other developing countries academic attainment by girls is well-known to be limited? Is it just a question of access to educational opportunity, or are there more complex issues at work? A recent Roehampton Institute/DFID research report examines the relationship between pupils' gender and school achievement in three Caribbean countries - Barbados, St Vincent and Trinidad.

Most countries within the Caribbean region offer good (if not universal) access to primary education and a large proportion of the population have access to post-primary schooling. Variation in school achievement from country to country is largely explained by the socio-economic status of parents. A clear secondary factor, however, is gender: girls appear to achieve better results in school than boys.

Studies reported here involved quantitative surveys to assess gender differentiated school achievement across the three islands, and qualitative case studies to seek insights into classroom process, interaction and structure as possible factors in academic success (or lack of it) at the level where it affects children.

Findings indicated that:

• In all three countries girls consistently out-performed boys in both primary and secondary schools, across social classes, in most curriculum subjects and across various types of stratified schools.
• Boys have few high attainment role models and have a higher secondary school drop-out rate than girls. It is suggested that fathers' lack of presence, plus poor education and lack of help with homework may be cyclical in the educational experience of boys.
• Pupil gender was only one significant factor in the explanation of attainment at school. Factors such as occupation of parents, whom the child lives with, attendance at pre-school facilities and the type of school attended each contributed more to the variance in attainment than gender.

Within schools, case studies showed practices which allowed for the inclusion or exclusion of certain children. 'Cultures' of particular schools may help to overcome or magnify these distinctions in attainment (between genders and between children associated with different parental occupations). Observations of non-prestige schools found that the formal and competitive atmosphere within classrooms encouraged high attainers and discouraged low attainers (mainly boys); whereas the culture of prestige schools overcame gender and class differences among pupils.

The main policy implication of these insights is that educators should look to school placement and activities within the classroom as arenas that may be used to enhance boys attainment, knowing that societal attitudes and parental behaviour will affect achievement as well.

Source(s):
Gender and school achievement in the Caribbean. DFID Education Research Paper No. 21, P. Kutnick et al (1997), DFID, London

Funded by: DFID Education Division, UK (1994-1997)

id21 Research Highlight: 1998-May-15

Further Information:
P. Kutnick, V. Jules & A. Lane
Education Research Centre
University of Brighton
Bevendean House
Falmer
Brighton BN1 9PH
UK

Tel: +44 (0) 1273 643 517
Fax: +44 (0) 1273 643 453
Contact the contributor: p.kutnick@brighton.ac.uk

Roehampton Institute, UK

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