Blog

Echoes of Disparity is a recent report from the Kathleen Burrow Research Institute. This report has sounded the alarm and it deserves every parent’s attention. It lays out what many families quietly have been observing for years: boys are struggling, and their struggles aren’t just a private tragedy – they are a public crisis.

The numbers are stark. There are 43 per cent more boys who fail to complete year 12 than girls, according to the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. This means an additional 12,000 young men are exiting the school system every year without a credential that is a minimum requirement for most decent jobs.

NAPLAN data paints an even bleaker picture: boys are twice as likely as girls to fall into the “needs additional support” category for literacy. This is the lowest band for measuring performance and is effectively a fail for the foundational skills of reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation.

The literacy gap widens dramatically during the crucial transition from primary school to secondary school. By year 9, the average Australian boy is 1½ years behind the average girl in literacy.

These outcomes aren’t occurring because boys are “defective girls” or lazy students, as Britain’s Closing the Gender Attainment Gap report makes clear. It is because we have failed to design a system that accepts the inherent traits of boys while keeping them engaged. The Australian curriculum heavily favours early verbal fluency, sedentary learning styles and classroom compliance (all traits that come much more naturally to girls than to boys).

Meanwhile, male teachers are disappearing from the classroom. Fewer than 18 per cent of primary school teachers in Australia are men, and the proportion of male teachers is at an all-time low.

This leaves many boys without a single male educator throughout their formative years. I have seen this with my son, who has never had a male teacher through primary school or preschool.

The Lost Boys report from March 2025 puts it bluntly: failing to educate boys properly has downstream effects in employment, mental health, and crime.

Young men now make up a growing share of those not in employment, education or training (the so-called NEETs).

The consequences are grim: rising youth unemployment; disengagement from civic life; and tragically high rates of suicide. In short, when boys are left behind, society pays the price.

So what can be done? We need action at every level. Governments and independent schools must invest in evidence-based literacy interventions targeted specifically at boys (particularly in the early and middle years of school).

As a society, we must fund research that tests what works (not just what sounds good for politicians and administrators).

Schools need to create boy-positive environments where high expectations and relational teaching motivate boys to rise, not to retreat. We need to expand mentoring programs, bring more male teachers into classrooms and provide vocational and technical pathways recognising that not every child will thrive on an academic track.

There are 43 per cent more boys who fail to complete year 12 than girls, according to the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority.

And parents have a crucial role. You are the fiercest advocates for your sons. Demand that your schools report on gender gaps and publish their plans to address them. Insist that governments treat this as the social justice and equity issue that it is.

When boys succeed, it doesn’t come at the expense of girls – it lifts the entire classroom, and it lifts our entire community.

We have spent decades rightly addressing the barriers that held girls back during the past century. Now we must have the courage to look at where boys and young men are falling behind. Because unless we act, too many of our sons will remain trapped in the “tail” of educational underperformance – and that’s a price that Australia can’t afford to keep paying.

David Maywald is a concerned parent of a schoolboy and schoolgirl. His forthcoming book is The Relentless War on Masculinity, out in November.