Boys and Girls: An Unequal Education

Females are being left behind in Australian schools, their average scores far below males, only 30% of female’s complete secondary education and even less continue on to tertiary education. They are falling behind and are being forgotten within the education system. Oh wait, this was almost thirty years ago and it certainly isn't the case these days.

(Collins, Kenway & McLeod. 2000)

1987 saw the release of the national policy for the education of Australian girls. Its aim was to help bring equality to the education system in which girls were underachieving. The national education policy was a great success and allowed girls to flourish within the system and overtake their male counterparts. (McInnis)

Males are now falling behind, with their levels of literacy approximately 5% lower than females of the same age.

Not only are the literacy levels of boys lower, but so are their completion rates of higher education, with approximately 62% of boys completing high school in comparison to 72% of girls. 

The reasoning for the gap between boys and girls differs greatly in every report, but one idea stands out in the majority of reports: “the curriculum, assessment, pedagogy and/or the learning environment are seen to be feminised and thus to be ‘unfriendly’ to boys. For instance, subject matter and teaching approaches, contexts and applications are seen to favour girls’ interests, concerns and learning styles” (Collins, Kenway & McLeod. 2000).

I will not try to argue that the education system is or is not feminised as it is a broad and perspective based topic. I will however point out one thing that I have experienced in my own education, boys react much better to being taught by males, especially in subjects which are thought to be more ‘girly’ such as English and art. Male teachers are however a lot less common with only 32% of teachers in 2005 being males (Australian Bureau of Statistics).

With Australian boys being left behind and forgotten in our schools shouldn’t there be an introduction of a national education policy for boys that are on par to that of the 1987 education policy which focused on girls, or are male students not viewed as important as their female counterparts?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry the graphs came out all weird, I have no idea how to control them.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

References:

Australian Bureau of Statistics. Social Trends 2006: Boy’s Schooling.

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/bb8db737e2af84b8ca2571780015701e/e29750ff86d9e72cca2571b00014b9e3!OpenDocument

Collins, C. Kenway, J. McLeod, J. (2000). Factors Influencing the Educational Performance of Males and Females in School and their Initial Destinations after Leaving School. University of South Australia. Pg. 89.

McInnis, S. (1996). Girls, Schools and Boys Promoting Gender Equity through Schools: Twenty Years of Gender Equity Policy Development. (24).

Ministerial Council on Employment, Education Training and Youth Affairs, National Report on Schooling, Australia.