MBCC’s principal worried about males not embracing tertiary education
Published:Friday | June 20, 2025 | 12:08 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Dr Darien Henry, the principal of the Montego Bay Community College (MBCC), has raised concerns about the low participation of students – particularly boys –in post-secondary education in Jamaica.
Speaking on Monday at the launch of MBCC’s 50th anniversary celebrations at its Montego Bay campus, Henry emphasised the need for targeted efforts to ensure that boys are not left behind in the education system.
“Five years ago when I was principal at Cumberland High School, we got 85 per cent of our cohort of students, who were struggling to read, and 90 per cent of that number were boys. Also, there is a kind of concern at the upper end of the system that many of these students are not accessing education beyond high school, and they are falling through the cracks,” said Henry.
“At the community-college level, we have been assessing our systems to make sure that we provide that access. The community colleges continue to consolidate our way of making our programmes accessible to our boys, especially. Many of those students who present themselves with difficulties in understanding and really assimilating in the classroom environment, they are boys,” he noted. “Is the system really and truly meeting the needs of our boys as it stands now? The data is very clear that we have to act and act fast.”’
MINISTRY’S FOCUS
In January 2023, the Ministry of Education announced that it was focusing on expanding the tertiary-education sector, with options for students to access funding to pursue their studies.
In April this year, the ministry released a bulletin urging tertiary-level students to make use of funding available under the Tertiary Students Assistance Programme for the 2025 academic year.
Henry told Monday’s launch that while efforts are ongoing to promote tertiary education access to students, more work needs to be done in that regard.
“The social-work fabric in our schools needs attention, and the truth is that the [education ministry] has been making tremendous policy shifts. On the whole, the community colleges have been responding, but there is greater work to be done in respect of making sure that our students get access,” said Henry.
Meanwhile, Dr Michelle Pinnock, the regional director of the Ministry of Education’s Region Four, is suggesting that one way to engage boys in education is by appealing to their specific interests.
“We can get our boys to come in and to be a part of technology, part of building, part of all of these kinds of programmes, and I had a student in grade four, at Anchovy Primary School [in St James], who was actually making drawings in terms of blueprints. We have our children who are very interested in whatever they are interested in, but a lot of times what we do as adults is that we keep on serving them what we prefer,” said Pinnock.