"Primary school teaching and teacher education shifted from being male
dominated to being female dominated as a result of the intention of the
ruling class to release black men from service type occupations to make
them available for agricultural & industrial labour, and to stifle the
possible emergence of militant black educated men who could possibly
overthrow the power structure", (p73).
Miller argues that as result, a fundamental shift in socialization orientation took place
during the 1900-1956 period:
"Because of the fundamental influence of the primary school and the
teachers' college on black rural life, the change of opportunity from boy
to girl, from son to daughter (in terms of educational opportunity &
middle class employment prospects in teaching) brought about a
significant change in the socialization of boys & girls," (p.70)
Black girls began to achieve more educationally than boys and this phenonomen
continues today, contributing to the marginalisation of the black male. Jamaica is one of
the few countries in the world, as Miller points out, in which there are more illiterate
men than women in the population.
Miller outlines a similar pattern in the institutional provision for high schooling which
favoured girls in the post-war and post-independence period, in his book Jamaican
Society and High Schooling (1990) q.v., Chapter Seven.
LEO-RHYNIE, Elsa 'Gender issues in education and implications for Labour force
participation', in K. HART (Ed) Women and the sexual division of labour in the
Caribbean, U.W.I., Jamaica, 1989, p. 81-97.
Whilst Errol Miller (q.v.) argues his theory of the marginalisation of the black male,
Elsa Leo-Rhynie points out that access to high school education and gender/subject
choice orientation are two features of the Jamaican system of education which reveal
gender difference and discrimination against girls. She shows how in the selection
examination for high schools "lower-scoring boys are awarded places for which higher-
scoring girls are better qualified", (p.84). Although girls perform better on entry to
secondary school, it is disturbing that there is a tendency for them to make sex-
stereotyped choices in the opportunities offered in secondary education. Even in
academic streams more girls chose biology and more boys do physics. At 'A' level,
entries for girls have been higher in the arts & for boys in science even though overall
girls continue to have higher pass rates. Interestingly, girls of comparable socio-
economic status attending single-sex and co-educational schools have been shown to
have differing examination entry and performance rates: girls in girls' schools entered