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 times is 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.
