ORANJESTAD — The Boy Problem in our learning system and general education is becoming a bigger problem day by day. This situation refers to the problem in our learning system where the number of boys that become ‘drop-outs’ is bigger than the number of girls. In the U.S. for example it has been noted that 2/3 part of the kids going to a special school are boys.
In Latin America and the Caribbean there are more girls that finish primary and high school. Also there’s less boys that get into college or follow an academic study. In general if a country’s education level is limited, this could bring a lot of social-economic problems within the country. This means that a big part of our country don’t have the income to cover all of their expenses. This same group falls into various types of addiction and usually don’t give the proper amount of attention to their children’s education at home and at school. Family problems and poverty in inner cities become more when people are less educated.
To do something about this situation, all concerned with the education of a child should assume their responsibility and part in this process. UNESCO has the opinion that: “Education is a responsibility that all of us should share. A responsibility of all governments, schools, teachers, parents and private sector.” Most of the times girls are taught from a really young age that they should be respectful, flexible and well behaved while boys don’t get the same push to have a good behavior.
Also when a boy has a bad behavior many times nothing is done towards this because of the phrase “boys will be boys.” Nevertheless it is notable that a good behavior of a child could help them score better at school, but also afterwards help them when they go to work. Facing the fact that here on Aruba we also have a big amount of boys falling out of the educational system, and that in our advanced, high school, college and university there’s mostly girls compared to boys, Education Minister, Dr. Rudy Lampe took the initiative to dedicate attention to this problem.
Today, May 23rd, UNESCO Aruba organizes a special workshop for all social workers and guidance mentors in the high school sector. The goal of this workshop is to tackle this problematic with the help of the social sector and also the education sector.
Together they will help formulate a plan of action to describe the following:
How to get/reach a solution? By what means can a solution be met?
Where to work on the solution? Who and what instances should help carry this responsibility and compromise their self to achieve change and a positive effect in the development of our boys in Aruba?
This workshop will have a panel consisting of Mr.Richenel Ansano (UNESCO representative from Curacao), Mrs. Enid de Kort (systematic therapist at the Department of Social Affairs), Mr.Francis Groenveldt (Foundation for Men) and the FRERA foundation. In this presentation speakers will discuss the problematic of boys at home, in the family, at school and also outside school. They will introduce the problems boys and male adult’s face when having less education. And also will bring forward the importance of therapy for male adults and guidance for boys inside and outside school. Most important yet is to try to indicate what is still missing to achieve the points indicate in the workshop.
