Boys gaining on girls in NCEA achievement: Education expert

Evidence has emerged to show boys are gaining on girls in educational achievement. Photo / iStock

Evidence has emerged to show boys are gaining on girls in educational achievement.

The difference in achievement levels at NCEA Level 2 has decreased over the past six years, according to Ministry of Education figures.

According to the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, NCEA Level 2 provides the foundation skills required for employment.

Ministry of Education associate deputy secretary for student achievement, Lesley Hoskin, said nationally boys were gradually closing the gap on girls in terms of NCEA achievement.

"Girls are still performing strongly, but boys are making good gains. We're aware that many schools have done a lot of work around supporting their boys to engage, aspire and work harder to achieve more."

She said ministry programmes aimed at lifting literacy didn't discriminate on gender. However, boys were disproportionately represented among children being assisted.

"They make up more than half of those receiving assistance for lifting achievement in reading and writing."

Figures from 2009 to 2014 showed there had been a consistent pattern of female students attaining NCEA Level 2, or equivalent, at higher rates than male students.

In 2014, the trend continued with 79.9 per cent of girls leaving school with NCEA Level 2 or higher, compared to 74.5 per cent of boys.

However, the size of the gender gap is closing with the difference reducing from 8.2 per cent in 2009 to 5.4 per cent in 2014.

Bruce Farthing, acting principal of Otumoetai College in the Bay of Plenty, said achievement was rising at the school but girls were still outperforming boys, particularly at endorsement level. When students perform consistently above the "achieved" level, their results can be endorsed to reflect the high achievement.

However, there had been a steady increase in boys' endorsement, he said.

Traditionally, girls had outshone boys at Level 1 and 2 but the tables reversed after that.

"The worry is, of course, how many boys we lose along the way," said Mr Farthing.

Otumoetai College was focusing on raising the achievement of NCEA Level 1 boys.

It had created a tracking group to observe and mentor a group of boys across several subjects.

Ray Scott, principal of Aquinas College in the Bay of Plenty, said the gap in the educational achievement between boys and girls became smaller as students progressed through the senior school.

That was in part because boys were a bit later in committing to work and making decisions about what they wanted to do.

The school had been working on identifying small target groups of students which needed help at junior and senior levels. That included students of either gender but a slightly higher proportion of those students were boys.

Wairarapa College principal Mike Schwass said there was a gap between the educational achievement levels of boys and girls at the school, but the size of the gap hadn't changed greatly over the past few years.

The school was working on strategies to close the gap, such as teaching novels which would appeal to boys.

"A lot of consideration and thought goes into deciding which books they do decide to go with."