ATTORNEY GENERAL John Jeremie says the influx of women into the teaching service may be the main reason why there are so many young men in jail today.

’Whatever the precise causes of the problem, the harsh consequences are that as a nation, we are losing our young males principally to a life of crime, because almost all of the violent crime in Trinidad and Tobago today is being carried out by young males,’ Jeremie said yesterday.

Jeremie, who maintained that he was not an expert in the field of gender studies, said his comment was spurred by the results of a project the Secretariat for the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) did in January 2008. The project, entitled ’Action Research Project on Gender Relations’, seeks to identify the root causes of the underachievement of boys.

He made the comment while addressing parents and pupils at Fatima College’s 2008-2009 annual Awards Ceremony at Mucurapo Road, Port of Spain.

And as a former Fatima pupil, Jeremie added that he could readily appreciate it because of his own experience at the college, ’and my own participation in that experiment’.

The study, which was led by former Fatima principal, Clive Pantin, looked at how boys were brought up and socialised. It also looked at the sort of values and norms that were being passed on to male children, while examining what they described to be the feminisation of the teaching service.

But mainly, they looked at the general concept of a father figure and the role it played in creating a system of hard core masculine behaviour. In the end, they found that while education and schooling does not rely on the norms of patriarchy, males limit themselves in society, making it difficult for young boys to have a role model.

’I can express no expert view on this ... but I can say this without fear of contradiction, because in two hours I will tour a prison facility in Tobago with my friend, the Honourable Chief Justice, and I know from previous visits that what I will see there will be young, disadvantaged, poorly-educated males,’ Jeremie said.

Nevertheless, he called on parents and principals to recognise the challenge and seize the moment to make a positive change for the future of men and the future of the nation.