THE EDUCATION OF BOYS

ENDEAVOUR FORUM NEWSLETTER No. 109, FEBRUARY 2003

"Boys - Getting it right - Report on the Inquiry into the education of boys": House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education & Training, Oct. 2002.

On the right track - when the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Workplace Relations announced their inquiry into boys’ education, I was overjoyed! At last boys’ issues and problems in education were receiving attention! The Report was commissioned by the then Minister of Education, Dr David Kemp. The Report does appear to be a landmark event in that it represents a major departure from the politically correct line which had been vigorously taken by previous administrations.

Babette Francis and I had been witnesses at the Inquiry and the Report mentioned many statistics Endeavour Forum had quoted. It acknowledges what we have known for some time that is that boys are today being severely disadvantaged in Australian educational systems. This is because all the focus has been on improving girls educational outcomes. This has meant that boys’ self esteem has fallen, and they are failing to gain entrance to our universities because of poor Year 12 results. The Report rightly points out that girls have gained much ground while boys have lost ground. Three decades ago, males comprised about 70 per cent of tertiary enrolments. That figure had dropped to just 46 per cent by 2000. Female numbers have risen sharply in the same time to 54%.

It was pleasing to see a number of our recommendations taken on board. Of course we were not the only ones to put forward these suggestions, but we were encouraged by this nevertheless. We had argued in our submission that it was time the political and educational systems recognised that boys (half the population!) are entitled to have their disadvantage in education addressed after two decades of neglect - due to the implementation of strident feminist demands, many of which have been shown to be dubious.

In the foreword, Mr Kerry Barlett MP, the chair of the Committee, agreed with us: "...many parents, teachers, academics and community workers have expressed concern that, particularly in the area of education, boys are not coping with the changes as well as girls. The evidence seems to support these concerns. It is imperative that this is addressed, for the sake of the boys themselves and for society more broadly. If boys are not achieving as well as they should, their years of schooling are less enjoyable and less rewarding and they face greater risk of unemployment, under-fulfilment and social problems in their post-school years. Society also loses because of the under-utilisation of their abilities."

The Report has a detailed and excellent chapter on problems facing boys. These include literacy attainment, Year 12 retention rates, suspension and truancy. There are many useful graphs and charts in the Report so it does make a valuable resource tool.

It was particularly pleasing to read Recommendation 1 which called for "an overarching policy structure for joint and distinctive boys' and girls' education strategies which address boys' and girls' social and educational needs in positive terms; {and} allow for school and community input to address local circumstances..."

The committee also agreed with us that there should be more male teachers. It has recommended that `substantial additional allowances' should be paid to retain present male teachers and to attract new teachers (Recommendation 18). The Report also recommends that the supply of teachers, and male teachers in particular, should be enhanced by providing HECS-free scholarships to equal numbers of males and females to induce high quality candidates to enter teacher education (Recommendation 20). Other Recommendations address structural issues which affect boys’ status and educational outcomes.

There are, as one would expect, concessions to political correctness throughout the report and in this respect, it's a mixture of good and bad. It rejects assigning roles on the basis of gender and sees nothing wrong with leaving the present guidelines to improve the educational performance and outcomes for girls largely intact. Basically the report is tinkering around the edges. Some adjustment is needed it argues so that boys can catch up to girls.

On balance the report is a major step in the right direction. Such a report as this 15 or 10 years ago would have been unthinkable. So we must be thankful for small mercies. What needs to happen now is for all of us to be diligent and to make sure that the Recommendations of the report are carried through and that the Report does not sink from sight. Moves to bring back Technical Schools should be openly supported and encouraged as this will help to correct boys' disadvantage in education. The success of the Report will largely depend on community support -namely us! So let's be diligent!

{Alan Barron is Convenor of the Institute of Men’s Studies}

It was ironical to read in the "Boys - Getting it right" Report many of the conclusions I came to 25 years ago in my "Minority Report: Victorian Committee on Equal Opportunity in Schools", the most significant being that it was boys, not girls who are disadvantaged in education and in life. It is pleasing, even if it is a quarter of a century late, that there is recognition of gender differences and recommendations that distinctive strategies are required for boys i.e. that boys are not just blobs in an androgynous society. Most valuable is the emphasis on the essentials of literacy and the teaching of phonics. The importance of fathers and male role models is also acknowledged. Whether anything will come of all this is up to parents concerned about their sons. Feminism has an iron grip on the teacher unions, and the "look-say" method of teaching reading is favoured. It is easier to show a child a picture of an elephant and make the child say "elephant" than have him sound out the phonics of el-e-ph-ant......... The major deficiency in the Report is that it does not acknowledge the impact of the absence of fathers. The report should be read in conjunction with Jennifer Buckingham’s "Getting It Right Some Of The Time" published by the Centre for Independent Studies, Sydney.

Babette Francis

Member Organisation, World Council for Life and Family

NGO in Special Consultative Status with ECOSOC of the UN