THE EDITOR: I remember distinctly over ten years ago the Ministry of Education called teachers to a consultation on the introduction of same-sex schools. Or was it a dream of converting all government schools to same sex? What prompted it, I suspect, was that the all-girl schools were out-performing the all-boy schools.
The scenario has not and will not change unless the system of education is revamped. Had the ministry succeeded in the implementation, a grave injustice would have been done to the youthful population.
One wonders why the society/technocrats compare the performances of both sexes and do so only in education.
Two entities peering through the same window at life will have completely divergent views. One will see stars, the other mud. One will be attracted to the clouds, the other trees. Who is to say which view is better?
The natural progression from teenager to young adult is to get a job and raise a family. Even under the current arrangement the two genders have difficulty relating to each other. Can you imagine what would have happened if the two armed camps had crystalised?
One of the greatest events on the planet is the Olympic Games. For the most part both sexes participate in similar events. I repeat similar, not the same. Are the results ever compared?
Formal education has this major characteristic of herding children in classrooms for long periods, to the delight to the girls of course who prefer to dabble in things mental. Boys painstakingly conform to the restriction for they will prefer to express their energies physically.
Is it a societal thing that the girls go for the academics and the boys the skills? Is there bias in the system? Or what percentage of the system is academics and how much is devoted to developing technicians? Even when boys participate in skills training they try to avoid the academic areas. What percentage of the girls are attracted to the technical vocational areas.
The awarding of scholarships supports the bias. Shouldn't the distribution be even or at worse be based on the future needs of the country?
At the SEA level boys will always be outpaced. Why? Academics is emphasised. Why can't a shift be made to add physical activity, the concern of every being, to the mix?
The traditionalists will object for fear that the playing field might be levelled or the balance shifted in favour of the boys. The intention is not to compare but to give equal opportunities for the pursuit and fulfilment of dreams.
Soon another batch of SEA candidates will be examined and sprinkled throughout the educational system and the cycle concretised further.
Psychologists, psychiatrists and counsellors will reap more clients and sing the same refrain. SEA and the system are not stressful. Children are pressured by their schools, their teachers and their parents to perform. This analysis does not help, for root cause is not attacked.
At age three a child may not be able to read, write
