A STUDY on the performance of boys and girls at the secondary level has identified a number of factors contributing to male underachievment.

The factors include corporal punishment, "streaming students" according to academic performance, "gender coding" subjects and stereotyping boys as less studious and more disruptive.

Presenting a document on "Gender Achievement in Secondary Education in Jamaica" at the Ministry of Education and Culture's Heroes Circle offices yesterday, Dr. Hyacinth Evans of the University of the West Indies said schools were very "gender-coded" environments.

She said her research, carried out in about 58 schools, revealed secondary schools played an important part in creating gender differences.

The survey found serious gender coding and gender stereotyping where teachers had lower expectations of boys based on their comportment and behaviour in classrooms.

Dr. Evans said gender differences in student-teacher interaction were striking. While only 14 per cent of students said they were beaten at school, more boys (18 per cent) than girls (10 per cent) made this complaint. A little more than five per cent of students said teachers insulted them but of these, seven per cent were boys as compared with four per cent for girls. It was noted beatings by male teachers were particularly severe.

The report also stated where students were placed or "streamed" in classes according to academic ability, the gender difference was obvious.

"In the schools observed where streaming by ability was practised, girls were, in all cases, more represented in the brighter groups. The number in the high streams were almost inversely related to that in the low streams, so if there were 25 girls and 10 boys in the brighter group, there were 25 boys and 10 girls in the slower group."

Low stream students, particularly boys, were also more subject to beatings and insults.

The students' perception of themselves could also contribute to male underachievement as boys tended to have more "gender-coded" subjects which they felt were suited for them as males and felt serious and academic-minded boys were "strange".

"It is indeed alarming that almost 40 per cent of boys thought that if a boy wanted to be popular and respected, he could not be serious about school work," the study noted.

Education and Culture Minister Burchell Whiteman said the findings of the report, which is part of a Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) social analysis project, would be shared with staff and administrators in schools to help the system retool itself and better prepare all students.