We call upon local and national government to take concerted action to raise the educational attainment of boys to meet that of girls.  

In 2025 boys were six percentage points behind girls at GCSE level 1 basic attainment (70.5% to 64.3%) and 15 percentage points behind on university admission (57.3% to 42.7%). Of the 25 most popular subjects to study at university, 15 are majority female, five are approximately 50/50, and there are only five subjects where males are the majority. 

Boys are approximately twice as likely as girls to be permanently excluded from school and between the ages of 16 to 24 are almost twice as likely to be unemployed and not in education, employment or training (211,000 men and 122,000 women, ONS, January – March 2025.) 

Within them, these statistics hold and obscure myriad social complexities, including stark outcome differentials for pupils on from economic disadvantage, and diverse patterns according to ethnicity and community origin. This includes the striking under-performance of (so called) white working class boys.   

We acknowledge that there are no quick and easy fixes to these longstanding problems, but as immediate measures we call for: 

• A minister within the Dept for Education with specific responsibility for raising the attainment of boys, with particular focus on boys from social disadvantage. 

• A renewed commitment to fund research and innovative solutions that focus on addressing attainment gaps.  

• A holistic national strategy to improve boys’ educational attainment, incorporating factors both within and beyond the classroom.   

As a resource, we recommend the report by the Parliamentary APPG on Issues Affecting Men and Boys, 2024, Inquiry No 4: Boys' Educational Underachievement - Equi-law UK