If the latest NCEA results, especially for Level 2, are the beginning of a new trend, it is important to find out what has brought them about. Photo / Thinkstock
If the latest NCEA results, especially for Level 2, are the beginning of a new trend, it is important to find out what has brought them about. Photo / Thinkstock
Opinion
It is early days, but NCEA results suggest boys are beginning to catch up with girls in their senior school years. The tentative results of data we have submitted for statistical analysis supports the observation by at least one principal of an Auckland co-ed that the gap of recent timesis beginning to close.
The good news is it seems to be happening without sacrificing elements of modern classroom education that have been blamed for boys' falling behind. They suffered, it was said, when schoolwork became more verbal and social, encouraging public speaking and co-operative learning in groups.
They may have also suffered with the advent of NCEA, which assigns assessment tasks through the year rather than basing results entirely on an exam at the end. The male temperament perhaps prefers a single clear goal and boys might be content with a bare pass rather than pushing themselves to do as well they could. Girls get more merit and excellence endorsements.
None of these reasons reflected well on teenage boys and provided no reason to change the system. Not long ago girls were lagging, largely because society put less value on their education and gave them lower expectations. Now that girls can aspire to any heights they are thriving in education, not only outperforming boys at secondary school but graduating in larger numbers from university.
Their progress has been celebrated by educational researchers who, perhaps for that reason, were reluctant to acknowledge boys had become a problem.
If the latest NCEA results, especially for Level 2, are the beginning of a new trend, it is important to find out what has brought them about. Dr Graham Stoop, head of student achievement for the Ministry of Education, points to programmes to boost boys' reading and to tackle other "gender-specific problems".
Single sex schools like to promote the idea that the main problem for girls and boys at school is the opposite sex. Both think certain subjects are somehow unbecoming for one sex or the other. Girls are less likely to study maths, science and technology. Boys shun literature and social discussion.
But the more girls succeed in all subjects, the sooner these inhibitions should pass. The latest results suggest boys are beginning to wake up and work harder. Boys are said to respond to competition more positively than girls do.
It is not a competition, of course. Certainly not between the sexes. But if it makes boys use their brains a bit more, girls might welcome the company.
Intelligence does not discriminate and boys must catch up.
