Schoolboys aren’t as stupid as their results indicate

They just don’t respect women teachers

When Anthea Cereseto taught at a co-ed school for 13 of her 40 years as a teacher, she consciously adopted a teaching style that suited boys. During lessons the former headmistress of Parktown Girls in Johannesburg used examples that were of interest to male pupils to keep them attentive.

“The girls were not a problem because they did what was required,” she says.

According to a recently released report by the department of basic education, though the underperformance of boys is a worldwide phenomenon, it is particularly serious in SA.

Titled “Action Plan to 2024: Towards the realisation of schooling 2030”, the report states that “the causes need to be understood better and remedies inside and outside the classroom need to be explored”.

Last year researchers from Stellenbosch University who conducted an analysis of gender gaps in educational outcomes in SA found that girls outperformed boys in all subjects and grades, including in the matric exams.

Researchers Nic Spaull and Nwabisa Makaluza examined the results pupils achieved in the Progress in International Reading and Literacy Study (Pirls), the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study and Southern and Eastern African Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality studies.

They also examined the matric results from 1995 to 2018.

According to the education department’s report, though almost all countries rated in the progress in international reading and literacy study display better performance for girls than boys, the gap in favour of females in SA is the second-highest among the 50 countries.

The Pirls measures reading comprehension in grade 4 pupils every five years and the countries assessed include the US, Australia, England, France, Germany and New Zealand.

“Girls achieved an average of 347 Pirls points in 2016, against 295 for boys,” the department report says. It also says that in 2018 females aged 22 to 25 were more likely to have successfully completed grade 12 than males

“Thus, although more males and females have been completing grade 12 over time, progress has been substantially faster for females, resulting in the current female advantage.

“This is part of a larger phenomenon seen in many countries around the world whereby females outperform males in the education system according to key indicators.”

In England, girls continue to outperform boys in all subjects by the end of primary school, according to last year’s results of the national curriculum tests and assessments taken by pupils in year 6, which are known as SATs.

Role models

Stats SA’s General Household Survey’s 2018 report found that there were more boys than girls repeating grades 1 to 10.

But academics are divided over the reasons boys lag behind girls academically and some have even boldly suggested that the absence of male teachers as role models in primary school is a possible reason.

Professor Lindelani Mnguni, director of teacher education at Unisa, says the needs of boys are less likely to be catered for in the foundation phase (grades R, 1, 2 and 3) because most of the teachers are women.

“So right from grade 1 boys are going to lose interest in the schooling system ‘because ma’am doesn’t understand me; ma’am doesn’t take an interest in me but in the girls’. This is a serious crisis.”

His comments are echoed by several other researchers.

Spaull, a research fellow at the Research on Socioeconomic Policy group at Stellenbosch University, agrees that the majority of teachers in the country are female, “so boys are less likely to identify with and see the teacher as a role model”.

“It’s clear that boys are doing much worse than girls and this is not genetic, it’s about how we teach them and how we socialise them.”

Improving outcomes

He says praising boys for being competitive, strong and brave does not necessarily lead to success in class.

“But the characteristics that we praise girls for, such as being conscientious, neat and tidy and diligent, do lead to success in school generally.”

Spaull says South African studies have shown that structured teaching programmes can help close the gender gap a little and that “using structured materials with teacher coaches can improve reading outcomes for the weakest learners, often boys”.

His colleague, professor Servaas van der Berg, says the roles often ascribed to boys may tend to be more focused on things such as physical prowess rather than on performing well in school.

“The weak performance of boys is evident in many ways, for example boys getting less satisfaction from school work and falling behind early in school. Academically weaker boys are also less likely to remain in school than academically weaker girls.”

Suggesting possible solutions to improve boys’ academic performance, Van der Berg says: “Giving greater recognition to good performance at school among boys is important but attempts of this nature can go wrong if not done with sensitivity.”

Understanding the problem

But professor Deevia Bhana, the South African research chair in gender and childhood sexuality at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, is adamant that “not all boys are struggling at school and neither have all girls had good educational outcomes in SA”.

She says the fact that girls are doing better “has not led to the end of male power in society, nor has it led to equal economic and financial benefits for women”.

“We must be careful of the backlash, anti-feminist politics which creates the myth that boys are the new victims of gender equality, as if gender equality has something to do with girls.”

Bhana says academic performance is related to class, gender, ethnicity, geography, social context and poverty.

“What we need is a more nuanced understanding of academic performance that takes heed of these issues,” she says.

She believes that an area that requires in-depth research in SA is the way in which boys and girls’ expected behaviour affects their achievements.

‘Literacy seen as effeminate’

“Being a cool boy, for instance, is often associated with behaviours that are anti-school, anti-authority and opposite to femininity. Literacy and reading are seen as effeminate and avoided by some boys.”

She says the bottom line is that some ways of being a boy militate against academic work and scholarly achievement.

“Reading, for example, may not be associated with being a cool lad whereas swimming, soccer or sport may provide boys with power.”

Gender stereotyping in subject choices at school remains a problem, “where boys are expected to avoid caring vocations and take on more masculine technical subjects”.

“We cannot simply position boys as the new losers of schooling and underperforming,” Bhana says.

“We need to understand that the gender gap in achievement is related to a diverse range of issues, and making boys the victims without understanding the broad social, cultural, ethnic and class contexts is simplistic, to say the least.”

Professor Ronicka Mudaly, an associate professor in the school of education at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, says while debates about gender parity in education have focused mainly on female disadvantage, during the past two decades “male disadvantage in education is becoming more visible”.

“Poor performance, high dropout rates, lower graduation rates and lower school and post-school enrolments among boys provide a male-unfavourable scenario in education.”

She says parents and teachers’ expectations could shape girls’ and boys’ affinity for reading.

“This socio-cultural construction could result in girls excelling in languages and boys in maths,” she says.

Mudaly suggests that relocating top maths and language teachers to underperforming schools could assist in improving boys’marks.

Achievement statistics

Professor Felix Maringe, head of the Wits School of Education, says statistics indicate that boys’ underperformance is becoming a huge problem in schools.

“Decades of focus on the disadvantages girls face in schools have blindsided our focus on boys, who now trail behind girls in the quality of outcomes, in progression and in completion rates.”

According to him, boys are more practically oriented than girls: “To a large extent, school learning is more rote-centred, with little practical engagement, which favours girls more than boys.”

He also believes that because most teachers at school are women, “boys have fewer role models to copy and emulate”.

“Offering and incentivising more training places to male students at university, especially in early-grade classes, is one of the solutions.”

A teacher from a school in Durban, who did not want to be identified, says the majority of recipients of awards for outstanding academic performance are girls.

“Last year only two awards went to boys,” the teacher said.

Boys lose interest in the schooling system ‘because ma’am doesn’t take an interest in me but in the girls’ Professor Lindelani Mnguni Director of the School of Teacher Education at Unisa

Special teachers

Basic education department spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga says they have observed in recent years that a smaller numbers of males in comparison to females “reach and pass the NSC” (National Senior Certificate) exams every year.

“This may well be contributing to the high levels of youth unemployment we see in the country, which in turn may be a risk factor for gender-based violence perpetuated by males who find themselves excluded from meaningful social participation and from the labour market.”

Cereseto, who is now the national CEO of the Governing Body Foundation, says “girls are more diligent than boys”.

“They apply their minds to their work, listen to the teachers and are quite well behaved.”

She says boys need special teachers “who are able to teach them in a way that makes them want to learn”.