‘Echoes of Disparity’: Issues Brief on Boys’ Education in Australia

As many parents, teachers, and school communities know, Australia is facing a growing crisis in boys' education. This phenomenon is not new in NSW or Australia, and international research demonstrates similar disparities in comparable countries.

For this reason, Catholic Schools NSW’s research unit, the Kathleen Burrow Research Institute, has published a new research report, Echoes of Disparity: Boys’ education in Australia. 

The report highlights gender gaps in academic outcomes in Australian schools, which demonstrate that boys are falling behind, and examines public discourse on the causes and policy responses to this significant and ongoing equity issue.

It reveals that boys are struggling in literacy and are over-represented among the most academically vulnerable school students. This trend is driving adverse outcomes for young men in higher educational attainment, employment participation, and other stages of life.

While educational gender gaps in schooling are often framed around the average differences between boys and girls, a pressing concern lies in the over-representation of boys among the lowest performing students. NAPLAN data reveals boys are twice as likely as girls to score in the lowest performance bands in the literacy domains. Even in numeracy, where boys traditionally outperform girls on average, the weakest performers are equally likely to be boys.

Despite the scale of the problem, the educational underperformance of boys has not received commensurate policy attention. Government monitoring and reporting often focuses on areas where girls lag, while overlooking even wider disparities to the detriment of boys. While it is important to address gender gaps that disadvantage girls, such as in Mathematics and certain STEM subjects, these do not preclude complementary efforts to close other gender gaps that negatively affect boys. 

True to our mission, Catholic education brings a focus to these challenges to ensure no one is left behind and no one is held back.