One of the many missions I gave myself when I was elected in 2019 was to shine a spotlight on issues affecting men and boys in our country. With colleagues, I set up an all-party parliamentary group (APPG) to do just that, with boys’ educational underachievement being one of its key focus areas.
The APPG acts somewhat like a select committee. Witnesses are called, research interrogated and a report made. This happened over the spring and summer, and our report was released on Sunday, International Men’s Day.
We wanted to focus on boys’ education because there has been a gender attainment gap for at least 30 years. Today, it affects boys of every age and stage from early years to SATs, and from GCSEs to university entry. Just over half of boys (56 per cent) meet the expected standard of reading, writing and maths at 11, compared with 63 per cent girls. This September, 34,000 fewer 18 year-old boys went to university than girls of the same age.
The evidence is in plain sight. Yet, when we looked for national-level interest from the education community we found little. When we looked for action, proactivity and interest from thinks tanks, foundations and government we found silence. When the team looked for research they found some, but it was not founded on large-scale trials. Much lay gathering dust on the policy bookshelves. Society does not care enough about boys.
