Retaining Boys in School: Developing a Model of Intervention. In Institute Annual Volume 3, Institute of Education, University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica: 2000.

This Chapter reports a study designed to learn lessons from the highly successful two-year programme by the YMCA in Kingston Jamaica for boys between the ages of 12 to 14 years who had dropped out of the formal school system and the attempt to apply the lessons learned from the YMCA non-formal programme in two All-Age schools from which several of the boys had dropped out.

The Chapter reviews theories that have been employed to explain male underachievement as well as some empirical studies done on male underachievement in Jamaica. The study adopted a two-stage action research methodology. Stage one involved gathering information from the 200 boys enrolled in the YMCA programme through questionnaires; focus groups; and case studies; identifying the schools from which the boys dropped out, then interviewing the principals and teachers of two of the schools from which several of the boys had dropped out and then comparing the YMCA programme with the schools’ programmes. Stage two involved designing, implementing and evaluating a model of intervention intended to retain boys in the two schools previously identified. The assumptions and elements of the model of intervention are described and discussed.