Jeffrey Lloyd
By SANCHESKA DORSETT
Tribune Staff Reporter
sdorsett@tribunemedia.net
IF ELECTED to office, the Free National Movement plans to “immediately” implement a pilot programme to separate the education of boys and girls in classes and schools.
In an interview with The Tribune, FNM candidate for South Beach Jeffery Lloyd said he believes “boys and girls learn differently” and studies have shown that young adults thrive “better” in single gender classes.
FNM Leader Dr Hubert Minnis has referred to Mr Lloyd as a likely education minister if the FNM gains control of the government.
Mr Lloyd also told The Tribune that he is not a proponent of sex education for students but favours family life classes instead.
“Boys and girls learn differently, young men and young females learn differently and they advance at different paces,” Mr Lloyd said.
“Universally, same sex schools are recognised for its benefits. So we propose to separate the genders, in some instances it may be done within classes at the schools and in certain contexts the separation can be done in schools between 6th and 7th grade. I had the benefit of going to an all boys school, I went to St Augustine’s College in the ‘60s and I also was the executive director of an all boys programme called YEAST for over 13 years and we have found it to be phenomenally successful,” Mr Lloyd said.
“In some instances, we would also provide boarding facilities so that parents can choose whether they want their child to experience something that could not be (obtained) in the home environment.”
Mr Lloyd said there will be no additional fees attached to this proposed initiative because the “public already pays more than enough in taxes to defray the cost of education.”
He also said the educational system can only be fixed with public cooperation and the help of families.
Mr Lloyd also said: “I am not in favour of sex education in the classrooms but we will have family life classes.
“So with that we can focus on what a family is and what it means to be a family and how the family is maintained. It will be holistic not just a single focus on sex but a holistic approach to family life.”
Mr Lloyd has previously called for the re-establishment of the Youth Empowerment and Skills Training Institute (YEAST) programme.
He founded the institute in the late 1990s to help at-risk young men. However, the programme was de-funded by the FNM in 2009, then led by former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, just after the global financial crisis that began in 2008.
Comments
Publius 7 years, 2 months ago
Must I today?
Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years, 2 months ago
This guy is a joke...the voters need to ensure he gets kicked out of active politics. He really needs to be sent back to mindless radio talk shows where he truly belongs.
Publius 7 years, 2 months ago
Few things are more infuriating than the reckless, inappropriate use of "studies show" to try to prove someone's often inane and off-base points of view. Lloyd has a distinct penchant for presenting himself as knowing far more than he actually does. And since he pronounces the consonants in his words, many believe him. This is his "immediate" plan for education? Then he does not have a clue as to what the actual and immediate problems are with our educational system and the way we approach education therein.
licks2 7 years, 2 months ago
Why do you three always talk out yinna tails without checking yall facts. . .thinking or anti-doc attitudes! Mr. Lloyd is a trained teacher, administrator with international experience (staff training at Sprint International), excellent writer of grants proposals, researcher, public sector administrator, journalist, lawyer and extremely well read. . .far more rational and balanced in his opinions than yall "peanut galley sour pusses" anti doc FNMs around here! And yinna too blind to go find out if his mentions of researches in same sex education best fit for learning is actually accurate!
As for him not knowing what the needs in education are. . .he is an active paart of the Ministries of youth, education and his denomination education board. . .in fact the writer of their At-risk youth programs (inclusive of academic and restorative components) that was ratified by IDB, Government and his church education board! I think the reckless and mindless "spurts" of sour grapes are you three. . .dead weights in this current national dialogue for change. . . childish FNM party rejects who can't see beyond their "hurt feelings" and irrelevance to the ongoing change revolution taking place in yall party!! Lol!
Hogfish 7 years, 2 months ago
So you want people making decisions just on they own ideas?! Like Fitzgerald hey. More useless than sh!t.
Studies are based on trial and error and results!
I think separating classes would be a most excellent idea.
banker 7 years, 2 months ago
I totally concur with separating the students. Girls become more assertive and boys become less distracted. Marks have been shown to go up when the genders are separated.
The internet is full of scholarly articles (I just read one from the University of Michigan) that shows marks are higher when genders are separated.
Education is at a crisis point in the Bahamas, and anything is better than we currently have. I think that a lot of the naysayers here, are stroking their own egos and trying to ring their own hollow bells by shooting down a practical idea.
We need a new sea to educate on, to separate the buoys from the gulls.
And I would suggest that the rest of the Bahamians start pronouncing their vowels. (makes a better first impression for our nation)
TalRussell 7 years, 2 months ago
Comrades! Now we knows that Baha Mar's Leadership Development Institute classrooms should have been painted in blue for the 750 man's workers in training and pink for the 750 woman's workers in training?
No damn wonder it never could open under Izmirlian - with a school and all.
Izmirlian's "Wash em, Dry em, Press em" spokesman's should ask his now also a fellow red shirts 2017 General's candidate, the school's former Head Instructor, for a refund?
You just can't male this stuff up!
by TalRussell
DEDDIE 7 years, 2 months ago
Maybe "yo all" have not notice, what we have is not working. I support anything that is not the status quo. I remember telling a young lady after her son quit school in the 8th grade. He most likely will end up in jail or dead. The young man is dead.
DWW 7 years, 2 months ago
I support the idea of trying it. It certainly can't be any worse than the current situation. At least he is trying and working new ideas new ways and hopefully better ways and ideas. You can't cry for change and then cry foul when the change happens. Single sex schools could be very beneficial if people would give it a shot. And I don't think he is saying cut out sex ed, but change the way it is taught so it is a more wholistic approach where we get kids to look at the bigger picture and longer term goals. Focus on the family not just the simple facts of sex. Teach why family is important, in the context of sex ed.
Publius 7 years, 2 months ago
Lloyd obviously and clearly does not understand the "studies" he is referring to, which have nothing to do with the way in which males and females process and assimilate information on a neural level. If he understood what he was attempting to talk about, he would have mentioned the use of different curricula and methodologies of education for the male brain vs the female brain, as well as specialized educator training to enable such teaching to occur. And if he did that, he would have also needed to understand in what scientific context applicable research is confined. But he does not understand the subject matter. He is mouthing what he thinks he has gleaned from articles he has read and anecdotes that on their own, cannot be broadly applied, particularly without a sound scientific and child psychology basis and without an actual and achievable educational goal in mind. And this is the problem we have in this country. We have people making decisions that require specialized knowledge they do not have. In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king. We are at the stage now where anything that "sounds" different is embraced as "not status quo". The scientific illiteracy within disciplines in this country is continuing to keep The Bahamas at an overall disadvantage in the region and in the world.
banker 7 years, 2 months ago
Actually, what a lot of the studies show, is gender bias towards the boys, that discriminates against the girls and that is the major benefit to be gleaned from gender separation.
In terms of neural cognitive abilities, other studies show that cognitive learning ability evolves based on age. Young girls assimilate math better with their brains in the early years, yet by junior high, the gap is closed and at senior high, the boys' brains are more cognitively evolved for math.
There are a lot of conflicting gender studies but one of the key elements of separating the boys from the girls, is that discipline is easier to enforce in separate genders.
Publius 7 years, 2 months ago
You must have missed the point of what I said. I said the studies he appears to be referring to have nothing to do with how boys learn versus the way girls learn as it pertains to their sex, which is what he stated. You are making points about studies in general about varied subject matters, studies that may or may not have anything to do with what Llloyd is speaking about. Llloyd made a very specific argument as pertains to his plans, and that is what I am responding to.
This has nothing to do with boys and girls sitting in the same classroom. This is just one example of your citing indications that are not on the same subject matter as Lloyd's plans. And what you have cited does not apply across different cultures. In other words, like all research, it has its scope as built into the research objects and reasons.
Where are the studies that show that teachers in The Bahamas favor boys over girls in terms of classroom initiative, etc? Where are the studies that show that boys in our schools are provided more conducive environments to grasp basic concepts from the pre-school level onward, over girls?
gangof4 7 years, 2 months ago
On Friday, December 4 2015, the Department of Statistics released a report called the "Market Information Newsletter". In it, it noted that of the 556 graduates from C.O.B. that year, 409 were female and 147 were male. Of the 55 graduates from the Bahamas Baptist Community College, 43 were female and 12 were male. Of the 220 graduates from the Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute, 139 were female and 81 were male. And at the level of the national high school exams, females almost always have more grades than males by a two-to-one margin, as many boys drop out of school before grade 12. As one leading psychiatrist put it, "A lot of young males .....know they can't read, write and do arithmetic like the girls, so they feel shamed as being dumb. What they have left is physical prowess. So they can join the gang and use their physical prowess to make society suffer."
Rontom 7 years, 2 months ago
Spot on Pub. 100 % in agreement with you. What specific studies is Lloyd referring to? Theories of cognitive development maps out how one develops neurally, which is different from learning, which too, is different from educating. But to your larger point I concur: does he even know how to critically appraise a study or what level the hierarchy of evidence his research has or whether his study was peer reviewed?
Zakary 7 years, 2 months ago
LOL! In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king. So true... I'm not so sure about the feasibility of this so called pilot program, but you make a really good point.
licks2 7 years, 2 months ago
One was done in this country before and has had marked successes. . .boys did well but girls did not do so well. . .even now it is not so sure that girls could do as well as boys because the girls project was cancelled mid stream! Yall talking so much crap because yinna don't know what is actually going on. . .yet yinna want to tell the experts in these areas what is and what is not!
Zakary 7 years, 2 months ago
Are you trying to be the staunchest FNM? You label any criticism of FNM policies as "Anti-Doc" or talking crap. Everyone who is old enough, knows exactly who Jeff Lloyd is and what is going on. Repeating it all over again is not an argument.
licks2 7 years, 2 months ago
Stick with what you know there fella. . .yoon making sense here. . .it seems that you are the one "spouting" bits and pieces of information gleaned from who know where. . .STAY OUT OF WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT. . .YOUR PIECE ABOVE MAKES NO STRUCTURED SENSE IN PSYCHOLOGY OF LEARNING OR EDUCATION METHODOLOGIES. . .STICK WITH YA DOC BASHING. . .YOON READY FOR THIS MAN OR THE SUBJECT YA RUNNING ON WITH. . LOL!
sheeprunner12 7 years, 2 months ago
Jeff Lloyd is a Roman Catholic deacon ........ he probably remembers when SAC was a single-sex school over 50 years ago .......... he should also remember when GHS was a premier academic school as well .......... Pindling destroyed those schools and produced the dumb citizens that we have now (it was a PLP strategy - fat, dumb, partying creatures)
licks2 7 years, 2 months ago
I would think that he knows that SAC was same-sexed school at one time. . .after all he used to teach at that school!
proudloudandfnm 7 years, 2 months ago
Dumb. Expensive. Dumb....
jus2cents 7 years, 2 months ago
Q: Why are all the most successful and prestigious schools changing from single sex schools to having both sexes? A: Because it is Proven to have better results FFS!?? Again....falling backwards faster than growing forwards.
Solution = 1: Get Better Teachers from Overseas. And or, Pay existing teachers more money, Teach them How to Teach and give them the resources needed to do a better job. 2: Get Parents out of the gambling shops and involved in their children's lives. It's not rocket science for Christs sake!
licks2 7 years, 2 months ago
Name some of those schools. . . I gee on yall . . .yall een making no sense. . .LOL!
TalRussell 7 years, 2 months ago
Funny Clip from the 2012 General Election Results, why "separated boys and girls classrooms" just may have prevented Darold Miller from mispronouncing a name.
A sin "His Eminence" Ortland H. Bodie Jr., would never have committed live on-air?
................////https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaL8O...">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaL8O...
banker 7 years, 2 months ago
The man was crunk-up on blow powder.
Lannny 7 years, 2 months ago
Bahamains hate change even if it's for the better. They think negative and are against any idea that can benefit our country. Boys needs to be seperated from the girls if we want them to learn. Their mind tends to not focus on their future, girls are the same distractions. Both sex needs to learn how to thinks and be respectful to each other. The teachers needs more training and Phsycoligical evaluations.School is where the children spend most of their lives. There is so much Anger and discouragements in our people's hearts.We need more phsycoligist in the schools And Strong Security systems.
Alex_Charles 7 years, 2 months ago
I am not against the ideas but I'll need to see studies on this issue as it relates to post colonial small countries such as our own. If the data backs up his idea then I'm all for it. If not? Poomp in the bush.
sheeprunner12 7 years, 2 months ago
Just go to Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad to see single sex schools in action ....... then go to the UK, Canada and USA as well ........ co-ed schools are a liberalist pipe dream
banker 7 years, 2 months ago
Y'all did notice that he said "pilot" -- meaning that he was going to test the idea? To me, that is the most sensible thing to do, instead of taking unilateral action.
JohnDoe 7 years, 2 months ago
It not only said "pilot" one must asks how successful the current approach has been. I don't know whether or not it will work, however, I do know with certainty what the outcome would be if we do not "pilot" it at all. Further, the out of the box thinking is exactly what is necessary at this critical juncture as we move closer to the abyss.
banker 7 years, 2 months ago
Concur totally.
TalRussell 7 years, 2 months ago
Comrades! Typical politician's thinking. You elect me and "I" will change the gender makeup of our public schools classrooms.
Where in the hell was this same urgency when it was made public for like maybe the third time in just the past two year period that the PLP Cabinet haven't for months been paying the vendors who are feeding Grand Bahama's school kids under the government's funded School Lunch Programme?
Comrades, any child - boys or girls going hungry must take priority over an all girls and an all boys classrooms.
Publius 7 years, 2 months ago
I am waiting for a government or prospective government to begin to deal with the radical changes those in and outside the system know are needed. These changes need to be the immediate focus. Pilot programs are fine but priorities is the issue here. We don't need to take precious resources away from the schools "immediately" for experiments, when the system is in a state of emergency. Literacy and numeracy are at detrimentally low levels in our system and our country, and I have yet to hear how this will be addressed in a real way. Yes, we can pay teachers more and we should. But are our teachers where they need to be in terms of their qualifications and abilities? Are the qualifications sufficient for where the country needs to go? What are we prepared to do to address the same? Is our national educational philosophy what it needs to be? We are building schools, but what are we building in the classrooms, in the minds and spirits of the students? And then there are the Family Islands and how they are handled and managed in the system compared to New Providence.
Zakary 7 years, 2 months ago
Sounds grand, but I’m a very wary person. The Bahamas has a strange habit of adopting the absolute worst apsects of first world countries to their own detriment under the guise of change.
banker 7 years, 2 months ago
The way that I see the education system failing, is due to the old methods left by the British. They work fine in a different time and place, but not here. The reason for that is cultural, socio-economic & geo-political.
Children in the Bahamas first need to be taught life skills that they do not possess. They need to be taught from an early age about sexual health, nutrition & health maintenance (ever see the shopping trolleys of mothers buying lunches -- Doritos & such), coping skills, mindfulness, financial literacy, entrepreneurial skills, human interaction skills such as problem-solving, social cooperation, networking, self-sufficiency and strategic thinking. In the past, all of these skilled were imbued by a 2-parent nuclear family. Those days don't exist in the Bahamas any more. Those missing elements are the holes in their ability to be educated.
We need to shift from standardised outcomes left over from the colonial period, to teaching life skills coupled basic, first principle knowledge modules. We must abandon the short-hours school day of segments, and create self-paced but effective learning. School cannot be a factory for moving students through various forms based on age, but rather based on competencies in core subjects.
And like Tal said, you can't teach a hungry child, or for that matter, a child fueled by sugar and carbohydrates.
And because life skills need to be taught, I think that gender segregation is a good way of doing it, especially if you want, from an early age, to inculcate boys to protect ya tings and fer girls to keep their knees together unless the rubber hits the road.
SP 7 years, 2 months ago
............................................... Reality Is Serious Thing ...........................................
How will ALL the Boys and ALL the girls get to designated schools? Busing is complicated and expensive!
What is the objective? To elevate learning or bring school violence under control? Many female students are gang related and just as violent as male students. How would gender schools alleviate school violence and disruptive behaviour?
Why not simply designate one particular school campus for all delinquent and troubled students, introduce a vocational trade school type curriculum for them and get all these troubled children away from students willing to learn?
Additionally, students should be made to clean their own schools as Japanese students do which teaches them self-respect, responsibility and self-worth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv4oN...">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv4oN...
Certainly, it would more economically feasible and productive than the chaos we have now!
licks2 7 years, 2 months ago
Why not study what dem Martians dem did? Oh oh oh . . .lets do it how dem Aztecs , Etruscans or the Copts dem did education. . .it will be better than what did FNM government want to do. . .Lol! Yoon making much sense. . .stay outa education. . .you better stick to "lyin on doc". . .hehehehehehehehehehehehe!
licks2 7 years, 2 months ago
Why you thing so. . .because I tell you that yoon making much sense in ya blinded and based rants about yinna leader. . .you calling me a rocin doc lover. . .IF YOU WAS LESS BLINDED BY YA HATE OF DOC YOU WOULD SEE THAT THE PEOPLES DEM ARE "TAKING A SECONED LOOK AT YINNA DOC FOR PM! instead OF YINNA TEACHING HIM HOW TO SPEAK GOOD YALL AROUND MAKING YINNA SEF DEM LOOK LIKE LIL "SPERL" CHIRRINS DEM WHO GET MAD BEACUSE THEY CAN'T GET INTO THE MARBLE GAME! To us out here yinna doc done prove that he can take a "lickin and keeps on tickin". . . WHILE YALL JUST STAND ON THE SIDELINE AND TALK JUNK. . .LOL!
One thing I need to ask you though. . .persons who talk in support of the change doc is bringing is partisan hack for doc. . .yet you bash everything he does, say or use the bathroom. . .an yoon no partisan! Ya see why I tell ya yoon making much sense. . .YOU ARE A HYPERCRITICAL PARTISAN AGAINST THE DOC YASEF TOO THERE FELLA. . .SO HOW CAN YOU CALL ME PARTISAN. . .PAARTISAN? Yall FNM really that smart there fella.. . Lol!
quietone 7 years, 2 months ago
Well I think most of what has been said makes very good sense. Personally, I am not too much in favour of separate classes/schools for boys and girls.
What I would REALLY like to see are Brainstorming sessions conducted by all political parties and especially our Government... YEAH, turn the whole House of Assembly in to brainstorming sessions and SOLVE all these messy problems plaguing our beloved country during these seriously perilous times!!! AMEN!!!
SP 7 years, 2 months ago
.................... The Brain Dead Is Incapable Of Brainstorming .....................
40+ years of asinine stupidity and abject failure from the House Of Assembly and you seriously think they are suddenly capable of pulling off a productive brainstorming session?
Frankenstein has far better odds of fixing his own lobotomy!
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