THE EDITOR, Sir:
I HAVE read with the greatest of concern the comments made by Dave Myrie, Principal of Wolmer's Boys School, in an article entitled "'How can we motivate our male students?' The Gleaner Editors' Forum on Monday, February 2, 2004.
A solution to this ongoing matter (which also exists in the United States of America and the United Kingdom) may be taken from a new British Pilot Scheme that I read from a British newspaper The Daily Mail dated January 20, 2004.
There male students are encouraged to be seated alongside female students during normal class sessions. Female students (being brighter academically than boys) are coached to motivate their male neighbours in all aspects of their school work.
The education authorities in Britain who wrote the article have said that male students do learn a great deal more and show greater keenness in their work pattern when female students are seated next to them, thus resulting in boys achieving higher empowerment levels than they would otherwise have done.
Realising that Wolmer's Boys' is an all-male institution, perhaps we ought to adopt a similar pilot scheme here in Jamaica where mixed schools are concerned. After all, what have we to lose in trying out a new method?
I am a concerned parent.
I am, etc.,
WESLEY THOMAS
P.O. Box 505
Mandeville
