Govt to Make 20 Schools same-sex in five years!

That was the article written by Sascha Wilson in Today's Guardian.

The News is in short:

• The Ministry of Education will convert 20 out of the 90 government owned secondary schools into same sex schools
• This will be done over a five year period of time
• Gradual implementation starting from September 2010
• Students will have the same range of subjects to choose from
• This is done because studies reveal that males perform and learn differently

So wait, wait wait... Firstly I need to address all those individuals who scorned the all boys and all girls schools. Casting down students of these as though passage into such a school meant the automatic disregard of all heterosexual inclinations. I remember vividly Mrs Ornella Mendoza, had not even met me at the time calling me a "bulla" at Net Cafe downstairs Campus House. Probably two years later the same Ornella and I were engaged to be married while she still attended her Bishops, ring exchange and all. But we all know how those teenage relationships went...

SO now that my personal grievances are out of the way, would this solve the problem or create a new problem?

Well I went Hillview College and I honestly believe that my schooling there was second to none. Just in my diction and in my perspectives on life alone, Hillview has done more than I can mention. But ironically I attribute none of this to the absence of girls in my school.

I Imagine the advent of boys schools in the modern Secondary School Era is said to be to help boys focus without the distracting influences of girls during their hormonal changes and issues. But the truth is, if a boy wants to be distracted by a girl he will regardless. At least in my opinion. We live in a real world society and in this real world boys and girls live and work together. So lets say hypothetically speaking boys and girls do have a very different pattern of learning.

How are these boys and girls to function in the same economic climate where each must learn how to live and make ends meet at the same time?

Or more specifically in the job environment, is it unwise to put males and females on the same team for prolonged periods of time?

Should we have a totally male department or a totally female department?

Should university students have gender separation within classes?

Is it not an old english method to have all boys and all girls schools?

Good Questions I know. I know also that inter personal male-female development is impaired when the gender disparity is seen as a norm. I remember in Hillview my friend Stefan Guevera and I secretly taught some of our colleagues how to talk to girls, greet them and not come across as extremely obnoxious. All this in a behind the classroom, lunchtime pimp school. Not that I was any expert at that time, but I understood the basics. Simply be yourself because most girls stopped biting since they came out the crib. So you can maintain conversation with them. Also every girl does not have to be your girlfriend. Imagine these concepts were farfetched for some boys who were doing 11 cxc subjects at the time. It is not some big bang theory, in reality there still exists boys who attended all boys school and continue to have problems talking to girls throughout their life.

Granted, it is always said that it does not matter which school one attends for the brilliant have come from Junior Secondary Schools, the slowest have come from prestige schools, and even the most timid may have attended a co ed school. However we must admit that the direction the majority is thrust in is determined by the school one attends. Actually in Trinidad especially, the culture is so unique to one's alma mater, in Tertiary education many can tell without having prior knowledge which school one attended. Simply from the 'modus operandi' or the "ways" of a person.

When this 'project' is implemented, I do imagine an influx of students at Elders and SACC for evening classes. Mr. Sookhan's Math class may very well spill into the main road because somehow, for me at least, lack of girls in school does leave a kind of emotional gap somewhere there. Boys need to develop and put girls into perspective and learn to concentrate even with these girls around. I remember in Hillview for Convent Sports(which was held next door\over the wall from our school) no one ever heard what Sir said up to this day. All ears were tuned into the whistles and sounds of 1000 girls right next door frolicking in the savanna. I do not believe all Hillview men were thursty men. But simply the wonton deprivation of these girls from us all day put thoughts of doing anything else when they were around entirely out of the question.

Boys and girls live together in society and they must learn to live together in school. Boys must understand that if they learn slower they must step up the pace. Lets NOT slow down the pace because more boys fail in school!

I honestly hope that Education Minister Esther Le Gendre does play her cards right on this one. And to all those children who sat the SEA exam today, including my little sister, I do hope you all know what you all are getting into!