Super girls

The achievement of both girls – from St Joseph’s Convent, Port-of- Spain, and Lakshmi Girls’ Hindu College, St Augustine, respectively – reflects the increasing gap between female students and their male counterparts.

Though females have been the cream of the crop at schools for decades and though this fact has been noted repeatedly, authorities and stakeholders are yet to effectively address the implications. Instead, this year’s results tell us without a doubt things are simply getting more and more marked. Females were awarded two-thirds of all scholarships. It seems that as a society we are not getting the message through to young males that they need to study and to achieve. Why is this? One of the distressing implications of things being so markedly uneven is how it entrenches gender norms. Now, it seems, society has accepted the idea that girls are bright while boys are, well, boys.

Young males growing up are now taking in this message, this skewed idea of masculinity that depicts all things academic as effeminate and, therefore, out of bounds.

While the dominance of girls is a victory for feminism, ironically the imbalance now also demonstrates that so much is still wrong with our social attitudes to women. It is also yet to translate fully into the nonschool world where it remains more difficult for females in their careers and in ordinary life.

But the gender gap was not the only noticeable item in this year’s results.

The largest number of awards came in the sciences, some 180 out of 389 or about 46 per cent. This was a matter that Minister of Education Anthony Garcia said needs remedying in alignment with TT’s developmental needs. We spend $68 million on scholarships.

The gap between the science awards and other subject areas may reflect lingering prejudices within the education system. This system has in the past venerated more traditional career paths for students.

Parents, too, often exert pressure on their children to become doctors, lawyers, engineers or to do things which they feel will result in greater financial reward.

There has sometimes been relatively little consideration of what a child wants to do or what is best suited to their personal dreams. If these matters are considered, they are sometimes dismissed as unrealistic in a world where this is sometimes truly the case.

The result, therefore, is a bias in favour of things like sciences at the expense of arts or humanities, both of which are essential to human endeavour.

The way to address the gap here is to signal to students that all is literally possible in today’s interconnected world.

None of this is to detract from the genuine achievements of both girls at the top. Raquel has praised her teachers who motivated her to learn, a factor that was no doubt crucial. Education should not be a top-down affair where a teacher only lectures to students. Rather the process should encourage students to think for themselves and empower them to learn more. Raquel also praised her parents (“it’s more their President’s Medal than mine” she joked) and no doubt this was also a factor in Priya’s case.

Often the valuable work of all stakeholders is masked by the problems, ranging from school violence, bullying, gross misconduct and delinquent teachers, all matters which Minister Garcia, commendably, has been tackling aggressively together with some of the prime stakeholders, the teaching fraternity and the parent-teacher associations. That notwithstanding, the President’s Medal winners prove that some things are going well.

It is notable that both of the top students are at the University of the West Indies, in a sign of the enduring confidence in that institution.

We congratulate them both as well as all students who sat the examination.