Schools 'failing generation of teenage boys' as the GCSE gender gap is at its widest

Submitted by Broadsword on Thu, 2011-08-25 21:37

Article here. Excerpt:

Schools were today accused of failing a generation of teenage boys as record exam results revealed the gender gap is wider than ever. One in four entries from girls scored an A*, while fewer than one in five of those from boys were awarded the top grade - the biggest gap since the A* was introduced in 1994.

Education experts warned the "alarming" trend is leaving boys without the necessary skills to get the most out of life. The starkest difference was in English, with 73 per cent of girls getting an A* to C grade compared with 59 per cent of boys.
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Girls are moving to traditionally male science subjects at a faster rate than boys, helping to fuel a massive increase in the popularity of physics, chemistry and biology.
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The most worrying trend was the increasing gap between the results of boys and girls, said Professor Alan Smithers, director of the centre for education and employment research at the University of Buckingham.

"It is a truly enormous gap in English and it is really very alarming. It is a poor reflection on us as educators. We are failing boys in English. We are not giving them the necessary understanding to get as much out of life as they could."

It comes despite coursework being cut back, which has in the past been blamed for helping girls to do better at their GCSEs. When the A* was first introduced the gap between boys and girls was just three per cent.'

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Comments

I would love to see a protest where all parents refuse to send their boys to school unless changes are made. I don't know how education funding works in the UK, but here in the United States schools receive funds based on attendance (about $9000 per year per student). Calculations are based on average dally attendance, not the number of registered students.

If there was a threat to the schools of loosing half their funding, they might start taking the boy problem seriously. They seem to have forgotten they work for the public and their money comes from us!.

The public schools need $9000 per student per year to provide education. You know how much I spend on homeschooling?...about $400 per year on material I use at home (that I can re-use or re-sell) and $110 per month at Kuman. That comes out to $1720 per child per year. And many homeschoolers don't use outside sources like Kuman.

BTW- please support homeschooling laws and charter schools laws if you truly want consumers to control education. Don't leave childhood education up to the government

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Submitted by Kris on Fri, 2011-08-26 00:23