Poor performance by boys in Grade Six Assessment

The under-performance of boys at the academic level has again come under the spotlight.

The ministry of education disclosed at a press conference on Monday, that a high proportion of boys performed poorly at the 2010 Grade Six National Assessment.

“Generally speaking, the girls performed better than the boys with the exception of the science where … the two scores are just about the same.” Senior education officer Nicholas Goldberg, reported.

“In things like Language Arts 2 , that’s the Composition, boys did particularly worse or less good than the girls….they [the girls] even did better by four percentage points in Mathematics,” Goldberg continued.

He said the difference in performance between the males and females is also evident in the scores for Language Arts.

“Eleven percent of the girls got A’s compared to five percent of the boys… Only five percent of the girls got E’s, compared to 13 percent f the boys,” Goldberg revealed.

In Math, he said twelve percent of the girls got A’s compared to 10 percent of the boys and seven percent of the girls obtained E’s while thirteen boys got E’s.

He noted that Math proved harder for students this year, and students performed better this year in Science and Social Studies compared to last year.

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5 Comments

  1. Marigot
    June 23, 2010

    they need more ROLE MODELS with class, who are they looking up to?when all they see and hear about is DISHONESTY, FRAUD AND MEN WITHOUT PRINCIPLE.Dominican Men need to stand up for our boys .

  2. Lennon Matthew
    June 23, 2010

    It is plain and simple. There is a lack of Male role models in our society. School is the last thing on there mind

  3. Bagguyla
    June 22, 2010

    Percentages don't tell the full story especially one considers that more boys wrote the exams than girls. The actually numbers would probably have given a better picture.

  4. Fair & Square
    June 22, 2010

    Aylassss….it is really disheartening to once again hear that our boys perform poorly. I wish I knew the solution, to at least offer some advice. I have one girl child; so, I can only speak from the perspective of having raised a daughter.

    (1) Reading is the key to success in ANY subject (one has to be able to read & understand instructions). Someone can have all de brain in de world & cyan read, that in itself will be a set back. I exposed my daughter to reading from infancy. Simple things as buying the newspaper….It was humorous to watch my 2 year old sit with her legs crossed & newspaper spread out as if she could read……she could not read a thing! The point I am making is that we parents ought to create the awareness and interest from an early age. As she grew, I could not support her reading habits bcuz books are expensive, so we got a library card. To this day at 14yrs, my daughter still loves to read and she is an excellent student.

    (2) From as early as possible parents ought to instill the importance of education in our children's minds. Make time to help them with homework, prepare them for tests/final exams etc & more importantly have a zero-tolerance policy against mis-behavior at school. We should not condone, where our children feel it is o.k to misbehave or disrespect authority. Neither should we wait until Common Entrance class to get busy and harass them to learn. By Common Entrance time, it should be review of all they had learnt from day one of primary school.

    My child is not perfect and I do not know everything about raising children……I only offer advice based on what has worked for me and from the strict upbringing I had. I am aware that some parents have limiting factors eg. extreme poverty, drug abuse etc. but that too in itself should be a motivator, because as my father used to say: “I WANT MY CHILDREN TO DO BETTER THAN ME, NOT BECAUSE I DID NOT HAVE EDUCATION I WANT THE SAME FOR THEM” – my dad

  5. Benyahmeen
    June 22, 2010

    How is math taught to the boys compared to the girls? Are they not all in the same classrooms? Maybe the boys need male teachers to teach them instead of females. That is not discrediting the competency of any female teacher. I remember someone saying that boys fare better when they have male teachers. I guess it is because they give more respect to the male teachers. Aloso they can look up to the male educators as role models. What I am suggesting is not scientific but just sheer common sense. I don't expect anyone to take offence for it is just a suggestion. We are all free to offer suggestions.

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