Stephen Vasciannie
LATE LAST WEEK, there was a significant story about the St. George's College. Perhaps the newspaper report did not give all the relevant details, but it suggested that some members of the school community are disgruntled at the possibility that a female principal could be appointed for St. G.C.
On the assumption that the report did not provide all the relevant details, I wish to consider whether, as a matter of principle, there are rational grounds for objecting to the appointment of a female principal at an all boys' school.
You will notice, immediately, that I am not addressing directly the situation at St. G.C.
George's now has a mixed sixth form, so that, strictly speaking, it is no longer an all boys' institution. I am using the report about St. George's as the hook for this discussion, but I am not in a position to make comments on that particular case.
NOT RATIONAL
I believe that there are no rational grounds for a blanket rule against a female principal at an all boys' secondary school. Prima facie, any such blanket rule is in breach of the principle of non-discrimination on the basis of gender. Notice that I am not suggesting that there is a constitu-tional rule prohibiting gender discrimination in Jamaica.
Even if the Constitution does allow this form of discrimination, that is not a reason for us to embrace it.
On the contrary, it strikes me as simply indefensible in the year 2006 for us to argue in favour of a policy that would discriminate against over one-half of the population without any good reason. Just that: simply indefensible.
But some people will raise arguments, and will no doubt hold sincerely to those arguments.
One such argument is that, in Jamaica, we have a tradition of single sex schools, and that as a necessary part of that tradition, leadership is entrusted to men in boys' schools and to women in girls' schools.
Assume, for a moment, that this is factually correct - though it is not entirely so, for the Convent of Mercy Academy, (400 yards from St. George's, and 300 yards from K.C.) now has a male principal. Even if it is correct, the question is: so what?
There is a tradition of aligning the gender of the principal with the gender of the students, but the mere fact of a tradition does not really tell us whether there are some situations in which we may or should depart from that tradition.
ARBITRARY?
Hold on, says the traditionalist: this position is not arbitrary. Rather, it is based on the observable fact that boys and girls are different, and on the additional fact that boys, for instance, are more likely to view a male principal as a role model.
Taken to its extremity, this traditionalist argument would mean that there should be only male teachers in boys' schools.
And it would also mean that in co-educational schools, there would need to be female and male principals, there to inspire their respective gender constituencies. Indeed, this argument would also prompt the question of whether we need to have equal numbers of women and men on the teaching staff at primary and pre-primary schools.
The broader point is that the principal is not the only source of socialisation in the school setting, and so, it is artificial to raise the role model argument only with respect to principals, and only with respect to principals at single sex secondary institutions.
For many years, the vast majority of teachers in the primary and secondary systems have been female while, owing in part to salary considerations, men have drifted or flown from the classroom.
There is, therefore, as part of the current dispensation, an extraordinarily large pool of experienced, dedicated and talented group of female teachers, with a disproportionately small set of male teachers with the appropriate qualifications for the highest levels of authority at secondary school.
In this context, it will be increasingly unrealistic to insist that the principal at traditional boys' schools must be men. Unrealistic and unfair, for some of the best teachers and administrators are women.
Stephen Vasciannie is head of the Department of Government ,UWI, and a deputy Solicitor General in the Attorney General's chambers.
