Boys falling behind at school now ‘the norm’

BRITAIN’S education system is failing to tackle the “astonishing” underperformance of boys as feminists have made the topic “taboo”, the former head of the university admissions service has warned.

Mary Curnock Cook, who was chief executive of Ucas until last year, said the fact that boys are falling behind in education is a national scandal – yet it is such an “unfashionable” topic to discuss that it has become “normalised”.

Girls outperform boys in all aspects of education, from primary school to GCSES and A-level results. Last year, 57 per cent of women went to university compared to 43 per cent of men.

“I just find it unacceptable to think that it’s OK to let boys fall further and further behind in education and allow the gap to get bigger,” Ms Curnock Cook said. “Boys underachieving in education is becoming pretty normalised – everyone knows it yet no one is doing anything about it.”

She said that other disparities in education – such as the gulf between rich and poor children – are narrowing, but the gap between boys and girls is getting wider. “In about 10 years’ time the gap between boys and girls will be worse than rich and poor. That is astonishing really.”

Ms Curnock Cook said that the debate about gender equality tends to be dominated by issues such as the gender pay gap and the glass ceiling. “But those are work issues not education issues,” she said. “Quite often initiatives to support men do meet derision from feminists.”

When attempts are made to address men’s issues, they are ridiculed and are met with the “wrath” of feminist and gender equality groups, she said.

Last month the only university in the UK with a men’s officer scrapped the role after the candidate withdrew due to “harassment”. James Knight was the only candidate to put his name forward for the role at the University of the West of England, and said he wanted to highlight male mental health issues.

The National Union of Students officers began a campaign against the role, and he pulled out after claiming he was harassed. The university said the post was suspended pending review.

Ms Curnock Cook praised the new higher education regulator for starting to highlight the under-representation of white working-class boys at university, by listing them as a target group for outreach activities. “But it’s too late to say ‘you have to admit more poor white boys to university’. The reason why their particular admission rate is lower is because they have fallen behind in education. It starts in the early years and gets worse over time,” she said.

Ms Curnock Cook will speak at a conference on Monday convened by the Men and Boys Coalition, a group of more than 80 organisations, charities and academics. The coalition will publish recommendations such as extra teaching resources for use in schools, designed specifically for boys.