Boys’ Education

The NZ Herald reports that an adviser to the Education Minister says the Government has responded to falling academic achievement among boys with “denial, delay and trivialisation”.

This is a huge, and growing, problem. Some key statistics:

* In NCEA the pass rate for bloys averages about 10 per cent lower than that of girls.

* Boys made up only 41 per cent of NCEA Level 3 passes.

* In tertiary education the percentage of male students aged 17 to 20 has dropped from 46 per cent to 42 per cent

The solutions to this problem are complex. One part of that solution it seems are more single sex schools – and no Government has built a new one for over 30 years.