Boys' schools flexing their ABS

Susan Hassall is New Zealand's only female head of a boys' secondary school. It is a job she believes in "absolutely" - and she allies that passion with her teaching philosophy of love and discipline to ensure her boys are not disadvantaged in a system where, figures shows, girls overall are achieving higher.

Mrs Hassall has taught at Hamilton Boys' High School for the past 23 years and been head for five. She says she loves both the commitment to boys that staff have in an all-boys' school and the loyalty that boys have for a school they feel part of.

"A boys' school is a very special environment. Unlike a co-ed school we don't have to be all things to all people. We concentrate on what works for boys - and that includes a real preferred style of learning. "Boys do well under traditional structures and when they are focusing on one thing at a time. The NCEA, which demands attention all the time all at once, is not set up for a boy's way of learning," she said.

A Hamilton Boys' High School class

Mrs Hassall is also deputy chair of the Association of Boys' Schools (ABS). Just over one year old and consisting of 36 of the country's 42 boys' secondary schools, the association is working hard to convince the government that the much-publicised gap between girls' and boys' achievement at schools can be turned around with education for boys that fits their ways of learning.

Their lobbying has borne fruit with the announcement earlier this year of a government programme to identify solutions for lifting boys' achievement at secondary school.

The programme includes:

• a literature review to establish the gaps in the current evidence base related to boys' achievement in New Zealand and to identify programmes that have improved boys' achievement
• establishing an external reference group, of four to five experts in boys' achievement
• having Ministry of Education staff meet with co-educational and boys school principals to discuss boys' achievement and to identify programmes which are making a difference for them.

ABS chairman Paul Baker said the government programme was a logical starting point but much work would be required to start getting results.

"The minister of education has conceded that our time has come but the ministry sometimes finds it a little difficult to admit that girls are doing better. There's still the old 'girls can do anything' time-warp there.

"We think it's fantastic that girls are doing so well, but if nothing is done about the lower levels of male achievement, the consequences of under-educated and under-socialised boys entering society will be very damaging for us all.

"We don't think there is a 'crisis', but we are concerned with the state of boyhood and there are problems to address."

Dr Baker, rector at Oamaru's 560-pupil Waitaki Boys' High School, said boys' schools were generally doing well, the problem was in co-ed schools.

"The key thing is that boys' schools had issues and challenges to face in the 80s and 90s and they did so. Now boy's schools have a clear sense of what they are and what they exist for - they are the most remarkably cohesive communities, well able to positively tap male energy."

Dr Baker said ABS would to continue to advocate for boys' schools and for boys' education.

"Working with a very collegial group of like-minded people to develop what is best for boys can only be a positive step," he said.

The problem of boys' education is not confined to New Zealand. The Australian government last month announced A$3.8 million dollars for more than 30 primary and secondary schools as part of its education strategy to improve the flagging performance of boys.

Thirty-eight schools across Australia will each receive up to A$100,000 for development programmes tackling boys' education under the second phase of the Boys Education Lighthouse Project.

Education Minister Brendan Nelson said boys were falling behind educationally and were disproportionately represented at the bottom end of performance measures.

"The problem is not ... that girls are doing better than boys, the real problem is that there is some evidence that boys are not doing as well as boys were 30 or 35 years ago," Dr Nelson said.

Last month, in Canada, the Ontario Education Minister Gerrard Kennedy said his government was concerned that the growing shortage of male teachers was contributing to the poor academic performance levels of boys in classrooms.

"We have a problem with boys; male students are struggling in a number of areas. And there is some reasonable research that's suggesting that the lack of male role models in teaching positions can be an influencer there," Mr Kennedy was quoted in the Toronto Star.

And, in March, The Scotsman reported on a Scottish Executive study showing that more than 57 percent of boys are failing the writing test at the end of the 5-14 national curriculum.

Resources

A literature review of gender differences in New Zealand compulsory education.

Information on the New Zealand government boys' education review.

The Lighthouse website.

A statement on the funding of the Lighthouse project.

More information on the Ontario government's concerns.

The Scotsman story.