Women and Men in the Caribbean Community

Women and Men in the Caribbean CommunityDeclining Number of Dropouts,More Favourable for GirlsTable 4.11 Number of dropoutsand percentage of girls amongdropouts at secondary level,1980s and 1990sDropoutsCountry Year Number % girlsDominica 1984 81 701990 121 451995 119 47Grenada 1991 107 591995 99 47Guyana 1983 9,652 491998 4,835 47St. Lucia 1995 169 54At the secondary level, girls comprised close to half ofthe total dropouts in Dominica (1995/96), Grenada(1995/96) and Guyana (1998/99)—47 per cent in allthree countries for these years. In Saint Lucia, dropoutsof girls from secondary schools exceeded that of boysdropouts (table 4.11).Dropping out of secondary school appears to havedeclined significantly in Guyana between 1983/84 and1998/99, as indicated by the decrease by half, in thenumber of dropouts in the later year but still remainshigh at 4,835. The share of girls among them hasremained almost the same in the interim.zSource: Prepared by the CARICOM Secretariat fromnational education statistics digests and reports.Table 4.12 Number of repeaters and percentage female,by level of education, 1980s and 1990sPrimaryCountryYear Number % female Number % femaleDominica 1984/85 … … 388 691990/91 … … 306 531995/96 … … 299 44Grenada 1987/88 1,933 39 … …1995/96 2,629 39 665 60Guyana 1983/84 4,277 46 2,291 491994/95 4,144 41 4,736 511998/99 3,296 40 5,317 46Jamaica 1986/87 7,020 49 1,097 551994/95 7,252 48 2,005 421996/97 6,070 46 1,921 39Trinidad and Tobago 1997/98 8,910 45 … …Source: Prepared by the CARICOM Secretariat from national educationstatistics digests and reports.Girls among Primary and Secondary RepeatersFewer than Boys and DecliningSecondaryIn all four countries with data onrepeaters, in the mid-to late 1990s, girlsconsistently comprised less than half ofrepeaters at the primary level. In the late1990s, the share of girls among repeatersranged between 39 per cent in Grenadaand 46 per cent in Jamaica (table 4.12).These figures indicate a smaller likelihoodof girls repeating grades relative toboys, since there are nearly equal numbersof boys and girls at the primary level(table 4.6). For Guyana and Jamaica, forwhich there are data for three points intime, the number of repeaters decreasedslightly over the period, as did the shareof girls among the repeaters. There are,however, different national practiceswith respect to repetitions. In somecases, children who have not performed well enough to be promoted may be allowed to proceedto the next class for any number of reasons, including freeing up places for incomingchildren, or following a policy of promoting based solely on age.Girls continued to do better than boys at the secondary level in three of the four countrieswith data. As in the primary level, there were fewer girls than boys among repeaters at thesecond level in the most recent year, except for Grenada, where 60 per cent of repeaters62