The problem of marginalized males is common across the Caribbean. According to a World Bank report, In Latin America and the Caribbean, an increase in amount of females in the labour force has helped reduce extreme poverty in the region.

“I’m asking parents of this territory: stop keeping the girl children home saying they might get pregnant. You are bagging them up at home and they are studying and coming to do great things and then you leave the boy to go all about. You don’t ask him where he’s going, where he’s getting all his possessions. Then when we look, they drop out of school and we wonder how so many women are taking over positions,” Premier Fahie said.

He added that the Education Ministry is getting ready to address this territory-wide trend of marginalized males with programmes targeted particularly at them.

He also said the territory’s political future depends on the education of males adding that self-determination will be further delayed if people don’t seek to advance educationally and professionally.

“We as a people have to wake up, we cannot continue in the mindset that some of us are in! Living lucky, happy, pretending like we’re not in the middle of a war. Today in the Attorney General’s Office there is one male, all the rest are females. No problem with that, we want the females to excel but we’re going to make a target on our males,” Premier Fahie said.

More to life than bikes

Premier Fahie also addressed the bike-riding trend that has beset many young men across the territory.

“They must understand that there is more to life than just getting money to buy a bike! There’s more to life than just fighting a fowl.”

“Because while you’re not making sure that we push our children towards education, there are those who are invading us and forcing laws on us. If we don’t wake up we will never get the BVI to move forward. I know what I’m telling you. I’m in the seat [of Premier]. I’m seeing it all the time,” the Premier explained.