The British Council Jamaica will be implementing its inaugural Boys’ In Education Week from May 1-5, 2017, under the theme: Supporting a Nation of Champion Boys. British Council will be turning the spotlight on boys, providing the opportunity for them to highlight the challenges and opportunities in their school life.
“Our Boys In Education Week is a part of our wider portfolio of work in education, where we focus specifically on core skills and inclusion and how this contributes to gender equity. By examining the challenges that are faced by boys in Jamaica, and black boys in the United States and UK education systems, as well as highlighting the opportunities that these education systems present, we aim to address the wider issue of gender parity, as well as how holistic education systems can help reduce the school to work transition gap, while contributing to a more balanced and equitable society,” explains Olayinka Jacobs-Bonnick, British Council’s Director for Jamaica.
“Boys In Education week was developed to coincide with Child Month adds,” Kadeon Richards, British Council’s Education Project Manager. “We have been working with our partner, the Jamaica Teaching Council for the last two years to respond to a situation which they have described as a crisis affecting our boys in education in Jamaica.”
Through their “Creating Equity in Teaching and Learning” module, the JTC highlight that: “the concerns for the underperformance of boys have been expressed island-wide. The results of various formal examinations provide the evidence that the education of boys is in a crisis… The question of why boys are underperforming within our school system has been linked to a number of factors including teaching methodology; socio-economic background; lack of communal support from parents and schools and structure of the education system insufficiently caters to the needs of young men.”
The week of activities will be centred on the launch of the preliminary findings from our Trilateral Champions research. On Monday May 1st the Jamaica Observer will host a Global level dialogue, during their Monday Exchange, with local and international experts including Therese Turner-Jones, country representative for the Inter-American Development Bank, Dr Tony Sewell OBE, Founder and Director of the UK-based NGO Generating Genius and Mrs Rosemary Campbell–Stephens, Head of the National College for Educational Leadership. May 2nd will be the launch of the preliminary findings of the British Council’s Trilateral Research at the Mona Visitors’ Lodge. The launch will also be supported by a Speed-Mentoring Day for boys on Wednesday, May 3rd, a Trilateral Parent-Teacher Workshop on Thursday, May 4th, and a Boys Junior Hack-a-thon on Friday, May 5th.
