In this paper the 1997 results of the CXC examinations for Jamaica are analysed in an effort to determine male female patterns of participation and performance. Data were obtained and scrutinised in terms of male female differences in a two stage analysis. Firstly, differences were examined for: the overall total of thirty-six (36) subjects and then for each of the sixteen (16) academic and twenty (20) technical-vocational subjects. At the second stage, differences were examined for: coeducational and single-sex schools, and school types.

Education, like any other process, experiences pressures at various times that require shifts in one or more aspects of the process. In Jamaica, dissatisfaction on the part of educators and stakeholder groups with the product from the primary level of the education system has resulted in pressure on the system to change. The major areas of concern are the rigid discipline-based approach to the curriculum as well as the highly didactic pedagogical strategies used to deliver the curriculum.

Violence, in all its forms, is associated with hierarchies of power in human relationships which result from divisions based on social organizing structures such as gender, race and class. In most societies, violence is commonly associated with power inequality in relations of gender and with a “normalized” hegemonic masculinity in which, according to Mills (2001) “…boys’ and men’s identities are entwined with their abilities to demonstrate their power over girls and women and also over other boys and men.”

Barriteau (1998, 187) proposes a theoretical framework which, she purports, can be used to examine how the concept of gender and gender systems operate within the cultural, social and political economy of states. She further indicates that a broader intention was to generate a gendered analytical model, which could be applied to studying a wide range of social and economic phenomena inherent in Caribbean and other societies.

Many factors determine access to and the quality of education that a country provides for its citizenry. A major constraint is the high per capita cost of education and the capacity of the state to meet that cost. These issues are focused on from two complementary perspectives. The first part of the paper takes a historical perspective. The democratization of education in the English-speaking Caribbean territories at critical points in their history is traced, including the interplay between economic factors and educational provision.

A critical dimension of children's early development is the acquisition of differentiated gender identities and the internalization and acceptance of corresponding sex-linked behaviours and roles. The gender identity and roles associated with each sex are not directly based on biological differences, but are culturally and socially constructed over time by a process which starts before birth, but intensifies from birth through the early years into young adulthood.