PREFACE

For decades, executives of the University of the West Indies (UWI) have lamented at graduation ceremonies that the proportion of males is constantly dwindling. In 2007 the intake at the Mona Campus dropped to an alarming 20 per cent for males and this was made public. Something is radically wrong here, people opined. The panic responses came with the usual Caribbean drama. There were articles in the print media, various discussions on radio, and meetings throughout the region. The response almost gave the impres- sion that the problem was new. The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) was among the international groups that responded to the “new concern” for males in Jamaica. The organization has had a long history of highlighting the plight of boys in Jamaica, especially as it relates to investment in educa- tion. In the 1990s they sponsored the first regional study on males known as “The Male Socialization Project”, from which came Chevannes’s 2001 study Learning to Be a Man. Between 2007 and 2008 some of UNICEF’s sponsored studies on boys were published, chief of which was material on the immense neglect of boys in Jamaica.1 By the end of 2007 UNICEF had worked with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to host a conference aimed at examining male participation in education in the region.