By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

EDUCATION Minister Jerome Fitzgerald yesterday criticised Free National Movement South Beach candidate Jeff Lloyd’s proposal to implement a pilot programme to separate the education of boys and girls in classes and schools, calling the plan “outdated”.

He also said it was proof that Mr Lloyd “hasn’t taken the time really to do his homework” on the issue.

Mr Fitzgerald, speaking to reporters outside Cabinet, said although Mr Lloyd’s proposal was “amusing,” he was “somewhat disappointed” in his proposition, adding that had Mr Lloyd done his homework, he would have realised such a proposal would not work and that there is “no research to show that it works now”.

The Marathon MP said the focus should instead be on “differentiated teaching” and “training teachers to understand how to deal with different kids differently because they all learn differently in the classroom”.

Mr Fitzgerald also extended the invitation to Mr Lloyd to meet with him, Education Director Lionel Sands and the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology “so they could properly educate him on what’s happening within the public school system”.

On Monday, Mr Lloyd, who has been referred to as a likely education minister by Leader Dr Hubert Minnis if the FNM gains control of the government, said the party plans to “immediately” implement a pilot programme that would see boys and girls separated within classes as well as within schools between the 6th and 7th grades.

At the time, Mr Lloyd said he believes “boys and girls learn differently”, that “young men and young females” advance at “different paces,” and that studies have shown that young adults thrive “better” in single gender classes.

To bolster his point, Mr Lloyd referred to him having the “benefit” of going to St Augustine’s College when it was an all-boys school, and also him serving as the executive director of the Youth Empowerment and Skills Training (YEAST) Institute programme, which he said was “phenomenally successful”.

Mr Lloyd also told The Tribune that he is not a proponent of sex education for students but favours family life classes instead.

In response, however, Mr Fitzgerald chided Mr Lloyd for proposing such an “old” remedy that hasn’t been proven to improve “academic output” amongst students. “Again I was somewhat disappointed that Mr Lloyd hasn’t taken the time really to do his homework on this particular matter, because had he done so he would’ve understood an known that prior to (former Education Minister) Alfred Sears and during Alfred Sears’ time as minister there was a pilot project at Stephen Dillet where they separated boys in the primary school and followed them over a couple of years,” Mr Fitzgerald said.

“He would also know if he did his homework, that separating boys and girls does not improve their academic output. In fact at the end of the day it’s actually the instruction that the boys have that improves them. So it’s a question of the teacher understanding that boys learn differently and making sure that the instruction that is given is geared towards boys being receptive to that,” Mr Fitzgerald said.

“And so there’s something that’s called differentiated teaching, and that’s really where we should focus our attention and that’s where we have been focusing our attention in the Ministry of Education, training teachers to understand how to deal with different kids differently because they all learn differently in the classroom.

“That’s really where the focus is,” he added. “This old, outdated thing about separating, it doesn’t work, there’s no research to show that it works now, and I would just invite him as I said to do his homework, because a lot of the stuff that he’s been saying quite frankly is amusing to many who are in the educational system, and at the end of the day these are the people who he’s saying that he wants to lead.

“So invite him if he wants, I would arrange for a meeting for him to come in and meet with the director and the PS and those who are responsible for the shared vision for Education 2030, so they could properly educate him on what’s happening within the public school system. And then that way he won’t be out in the public making these statements, which really, as I said those of us and the educators are really finding quite amusing to be honest with you.”

Mr Lloyd has previously called for the re-establishment of the YEAST programme.

He founded the institute in the late 1990s to help at-risk young men. However, funds for the programme were removed by the FNM in 2009, then led by former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, just after the global financial crisis, which began in 2008.