THIRTY girls were recognised by St Aloysius Primary School for outstanding academic and social performances at its ‘Girls’ Day’ celebration held yesterday in observation of International Women’s Day.

The Duke Street, downtown Kingston-based institution, held its celebration under the theme ‘Gender Equality: Equally Gifted and Talented’.

Female students from grades one to six were clad in formal attire for the day-long celebration.

Guest speaker for the day, Roxanne Bailey — a second-year student at Norman Manley Law School — engaged the girls in an energetic presentation on gender equality.

Bailey, during her presentation, emphasised that women should be given the same responsibilities and opportunities as men.

Following her presentation, she told the

Jamaica Observer that she was happy with the inclusion of women in the new Cabinet announced by Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Monday.

“History has shown that women played an inferior role back then. Even though there are only five women in the Cabinet …we see where gender equality is now progressing in society,” Bailey said.

“In the future, more women will be given more roles in politics and in the Cabinet. I am very proud and very hopeful. I know that with the modernisation in society, more women will come and take over” she added.

Meanwhile, grade one teacher and ‘Girls’ Day’ co-ordinator, Pamela French, when asked why she chose formal attire as the dress code for ‘Girls’ Day’, said she thought it was fitting for the girls to be elegantly attired in recognition of International Women’s Day.

“When we started out first, our dress code was jeans and a T-shirt with the school’s logo and ‘Girls’ Day’ written on it. Jeans with T-shirt is a regular dress code. We wanted our girls to dress and feel elegant, so last year we decided to go formal and it was excellent and so we decided to continue,” Ffrench said.