"At the moment, girls continue to out-perform boys at every age in the classroom. They pull ahead in tests taken at the age of seven and extend their lead at 11, 14 and 16. More young women now go to university and are more likely to get a good degree."

I love this--the girls are way ahead in school, but England, unlike the US, finally decides to try to devote some resources to boys so they won't fall further behind. And now the alarm is being sounded because efforts to help boys might--might!--someday put girls at risk of...not being ahead anymore.

Interesting too to see people upset about "gender-specific initiatives"--that only seems to be a problem when the gender being aided is the male gender.

The story is below--thanks to Malcolm, a reader, for sending it.

'Girls risk falling behind in the classroom'
4/21/08

A "significant proportion" of girls are struggling to read but many are not getting enough help, it is claimed.

About a quarter define themselves as "non-readers" because they find books boring and fear being labelled a "geek".

They are also less likely to get encouragement from family members to pick up a novel at home.

A study by the National Literacy Trust, a reading charity, says many young girls were "in danger of being overlooked by current policy drives".

At the moment, girls continue to out-perform boys at every age in the classroom.

They pull ahead in tests taken at the age of seven and extend their lead at 11, 14 and 16. More young women now go to university and are more likely to get a good degree.

A series of reforms have been aimed at boys to address the imbalance. This includes additional cash to buy books for boys.

But the National Literacy Trust warns that the achievements of girls may suffer as millions of pounds of government funding focuses on gender-specific initiatives.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 5:35 pm and is filed under Boys/Boy Crisis in Education/Schools, Sexism. You can trackback from your own site.