Boys slip further behind girls in classroom

Covid lockdown widens gender gap after differing appetite for reading leaves some six months behind

BOYS have fallen further behind girls during the pandemic, with some now lagging up to six months behind in their studies, a report by a leading education research body has found.

The majority of children have fallen three months behind after missing classes and schoolwork during lockdown, says the survey by the National Foundation for Educational Research of 3,000 heads and teachers in 2,200 schools. But this figure masks big variations between boys and girls and a widening in the academic gap between the better off and poorest children with the equivalent of one child in every class now assessed by teachers to be six months behind.

Boys already trail girls by more than six percentage points at GCSE with just 18.6 per cent of entries resulting in an A or grade seven and above compared with 25.3 per cent for girls.

According to NFER, more than a fifth (21 per cent) of teachers said boys had fallen behind girls during the pandemic, compared with one per cent who said girls had been the bigger losers.

A key reason was that fewer boys continued with their reading during lockdown. Three in five girls (60.2 per cent) said they enjoyed reading during lockdown, compared to 48.9 per cent before. Only 48.7 per cent of boys said they had enjoyed reading compared to 46.6 per cent before.

The gender gap also appeared to increase more for secondary pupils than primary. Two fifths of secondary teachers said boys had fallen further behind their “usual learning levels” than girls, compared with under one fifth in primary. “As boys already underperform at school on average relative to girls targeted catch-up support may be required to ensure that gender gaps do not widen further,” said NFER.

Nearly two thirds (61 per cent) of pupils were three or more months behind in their studies as a result of the pandemic, according to the research.

This was closely linked to how much of their courses teachers had completed. By the end of the summer term in July, teachers said that on average they had covered only 66 per cent of the usual curriculum, falling to 52 per cent for those pupils judged to be six months behind.

Based on teacher estimates, NFER said the academic gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers had increased by 46 per cent, partly due to poor parental support and lack of IT equipment at home.

Teachers in the most deprived schools were more than three times more likely to report that their pupils were four months or more behind in their learning compared to teachers in wealthier schools (53 to 15 per cent).

NFER said one reason for the fall-off was the failure of pupils to continue schoolwork at home. Less than half of parents (44 per cent) engaged with schools, they said. Almost three quarters of teachers (74 per cent) said they did not feel able to teach to their usual standard while the coronavirus regulations were in force, the survey found.

Dr Angela Donkin, chief social scientist at NFER, said: “Whilst it is crucial that children catch-up, we should not assume that teachers will immediately be able to deliver the same quality of teaching, at the same speed, as before the pandemic.”