Boys in the Caribbean are experiencing educational setbacks in what has been termed a "reverse gender gap," posing challenges to the region’s socioeconomic landscape. In Jamaica, for example, fewer boys and men attend upper secondary school and tertiary education, affecting the male population, particularly in rural and socioeconomically disadvantaged areas.
The World Bank’s updated gender strategy aims to address these challenges by engaging boys and men in gender-specific issues. The strategy also reaffirms the World Bank’s commitment to equality and inclusion, including for sexual and gender minorities. Emre Özaltin, the World Bank’s Lead Economist and Program Leader for Human Development in the Caribbean, elaborated on the implications of the updated gender strategy.
Özaltin noted that girls are more likely to complete secondary and tertiary education than boys, highlighting a need for increased efforts to keep boys in school and engage dropouts through technical and vocational education and training (TVET). High dropout rates contribute to behavioral challenges such as crime, violence, and adolescent pregnancies.
"Males who remain in education systems tend to be clustered in critical areas of the curriculum like STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] and technical crafts," Özaltin said. "In the labor market we return to a traditional gender gap. Women have better education but are less likely to be employed than men." He emphasized that focusing on women’s economic empowerment is crucial for regional development.
Regarding whether the reverse gender gap is evolving into a socioeconomic crisis across the Caribbean, Özaltin commented: "I am not sure that the reverse gender gap is necessarily a key culprit. It is great that girls in the region are completing school and doing well... But it is a challenge if boys are dropping out or don't see a productive future ahead."
Looking forward, Özaltin outlined several ongoing projects aimed at improving education across the Caribbean:
- In Haiti: Building schools resilient to climate shocks and supporting basic education packages.
- In Jamaica: Engaging in secondary education with plans for broader sectoral engagement.
- In Guyana: Supporting preschool to TVET through four different projects.
- Regional project: Focused on skills development and entrepreneurship opportunities with expansion plans next year.
Özaltin emphasized rapid impact at scale through regional integration, synergies, and digitalization as crucial components of their approach.
Addressing main challenges in Caribbean education, Özaltin highlighted inequality as paramount. "Most Caribbean countries have excellent education opportunities for a minority of people, but quite poor ones for others," he stated. Additionally, emigration of well-educated individuals poses further challenges.
Quality of education remains another significant issue requiring reforms in curricula, financing, management, workforce planning especially related to out-migration. Matching skills provided with labor market needs is essential as many firms report unfilled positions due to lack of requisite skills among applicants.
Finally, Özaltin pointed out data scarcity as a major hurdle: "Nine countries in our region are not featured in the Human Capital Index due to lack of internationally comparable data for measuring quality of education." He stressed better data collection and analytics as vital for decision-making.