According to the study there is a great
divide between males and females when it
comes to education.
Image: iStockphoto

Teenage boys are over represented in stand down and suspension rates, less likely to gain university entrance than their female classmates and more likely to leave school before 17, a Ministry of Education report says.

The report, “Boys’ achievement: A Synthesis of the Data”, gives a number of examples of this discrepancy between the sexes including that as many as 72 per cent of all suspensions and stand downs in 2006 were boys, and that 10 per cent more girls will gain university entrance than boys.

The answer, the reports says, involves ensuring male students are “engaged in, and excited by, their learning, and able to achieve their full potential”.

A new initiative from Auckland University of Technology (AUT) aims to address these concerns and the discrepancy between males and females in education by reaching out to male students in year 10, before they lose interest.

The programme, Males in Education Now (MEN), sets out to equip students with skills, experiences and new role-models so that the students don’t give up on education before they gain valuable qualifications.

MEN coordinator Paul Tupou-Vea says while the problems are there, these students aren’t beyond help.

“This isn’t out of our control. We believe if we can reach out to these students before they have given up altogether we can prove to them the value and importance of sticking with it,” Tupou-Vea says.