The conversation around boys’ education is gaining real momentum, with a government inquiry now putting a spotlight on how we can better support boys in the classroom. For teachers ~ whether you’re working with boys, girls, or both ~ this is an important moment. It’s an opportunity to reflect, share what’s working, and explore practical ways to engage all learners, especially those who may be at risk of falling behind in literacy. Sharing from an article appearing in The Australian over the weekend:
Boys are falling further behind girls at school, triggering a parliamentary inquiry into the growing gender gap in education as decades of affirmative action sees girls leapfrogging into university.
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare will announce the inquiry into “factors driving educational attainment’’, with a focus on boys’ struggles at school, especially with basic literacy.
It will investigate “factors responsible for the differences between boys and girls’’ in NAPLAN literacy and numeracy testing, school attendance rates, dropout rates and post-school enrolment in university, TAFE or apprenticeships.
It will consider “whether there is evidence for targeted approaches based on gender or other factors’’.
Mr Clare said he wants to make the education system “better and fairer for every child’’.
“We know that boys generally do better in maths, and girls do better with reading,’’ he said.
“More girls finish high school than boys. More women enrol in university than men, and more men enrol in TAFE and in apprenticeships than women’’.
Apart from the gender gap, the inquiry will investigate the reasons for different educational outcomes for migrant children, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, kids from poor families and those with well-educated parents.
It will identify “potential evidence-based solutions’’ to help struggling students – including the old-school teaching method of “explicit instruction’’, the use of artificial intelligence (AI), changes to the curriculum and teaching children to read and write by sounding out the phonetic construction of words.
The feminisation of the teaching profession may also be flagged as a reason for boys’ growing disengagement with school.
Women account for 80 per cent of primary school teachers and 60 per cent of high school teachers, with more men shunning the profession over the past 20 years.
Mr Clare called for bipartisan support to improve Australia’s education system, which left at least one in three teenage boys and a quarter of girls unable to read to baseline levels in Year 9 last year.
Boys trailed girls in reading throughout primary school and high school, but outperformed girls in mathematics.
Nearly a quarter of boys drop out of high school, compared to 20 per cent of girls who fail to finish Year 12.
At university, women made up a record 62 per cent of new commencements last year.
Girls scored slightly higher in the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) in the nation’s biggest education system of NSW last year, with girls achieving a median ranking of 71.6 compared to 69.8 per cent for boys.
However, boys made up two-thirds of the elite achievers with a top score of 99.95, required to study medicine.
Girls are more likely to study English and science subjects in Year 12, but boys outnumber them in maths, especially in the most advanced mathematical subjects.
Young women are more likely to be engaged in full-time work, education or training between the ages of 18 and 24.
Federal opposition education spokesman Julian Leeser urged parents to write to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education if they are “concerned that the education system is leaving your boys behind’’.
“The evidence on boys’ education is compelling … we are seeing gaps at almost every level,’’ he said. “If the committee also finds ways to improve girls’ education, that’s great too, because this has never been a zero-sum game.
“I have a son and a daughter in the education system, and I want them both to succeed – I think almost every Australian parent would feel the same.’’
Mr Clare said high school completion rates had been “going in the wrong direction for close to a decade’’ when Labor came to power in 2022.
“Now it’s turning around – the number of boys and girls finishing high school are both up – but there’s more work to do,’’ he said.
“In the years ahead, more jobs are going to require more and more skills, and that means we’re going to need to build education system where more people finish school and more go to TAFE and more go to uni.’’
A new federal Education Department analysis of university enrolments, based on the most recent 2024 data, states that “males are less likely to commence higher education than 10 years ago’’.
Female commencing enrolments grew by 7.3 per cent between 2015 and 2024, while male enrolments fell 5.9 per cent.
The department said more young men could be enrolling in vocational training – such as apprenticeships – instead of university, or else dropping out of school.
Men now account for two-thirds of apprentices – and 80 per cent of trade apprenticeships.
