The Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information will be establishing a Boys’ Committee to come up with strategies to improve the achievement of male students.
The move comes as the results of the 2026 Primary Exit Profile (PEP) show that girls continue to outperform boys.
In Language Arts, 80.2 per cent of girls were proficient compared to 63.5 per cent for boys, while in Mathematics, girls had 73.2 per cent proficiency compared to 64.9 per cent for boys.
Addressing Monday’s (June 22) Primary Exit Profile (PEP) Press Conference at Jamaica House, Portfolio Minister, Senator Dr. the Hon. Dana Morris Dixon, said that the committee will be chaired by Parliamentary Secretary, Senator Marlon Morgan.
“[The] committee [will] look at simple wins around how we can try things differently. There are some schools that have done really well. There are some schools that have separated the boys from the girls at grade six and put them in different classes and they’ve seen performance improve and so, there’s some data that we’re looking at in terms of what schools have tried,” she said.
Dr. Morris Dixon noted that school leaders are encouraged to try new approaches and report successes to the Ministry so that it can be scaled to other schools.
The Minister said that the under-performance of boys is a regional issue and will be examined during an event being put on by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Jamaica later this year.
Meanwhile, the Minister advised that the four and seven per cent of students who demonstrated non-mastery in literacy and numeracy, respectively, will be engaged in a summer programme.
“We also have to do the testing for those children because it could be indicative of learning challenges. After this, I will be getting some further reports because I also want to look at which schools they’re going to, so that we can also plan interventions at the high schools before they get there,” she pointed out.
