Publication: Educational Underachievement Among Boys and Men
Date
2021
ISSN
Published
2021
Author(s)
Welmond, Michel J.
Gregory, Laura
Abstract
This report takes stock of
educational underachievement among boys and men, examines
the evidence on contributing factors, and explores what has
been done to address the phenomenon. While female
underrepresentation in secondary and tertiary education
remain a significant issue in some, particularly low-income,
countries, more than 100 countries have lower levels of male
secondary and tertiary education enrollment and completion.
Learning poverty rates—the proportion of children unable to
read and understand a simple text at 10 years of age—are
higher for boys than for girls in all regions and almost all
countries of the world. Across various grades and subjects,
in many countries boys tend to have poorer learning outcomes
than girls, with substantial differences in some countries,
particularly in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
region, as regularly demonstrated in international
assessments of student learning. For high-income countries,
this is not a new development—it has been readily
acknowledged and discussed in the literature since the
1990s. What has become increasingly common is the observance
of this gap in middle-income countries as well.
Citation
“Welmond, Michel J.; Gregory, Laura. 2021. Educational Underachievement Among Boys and Men. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/37484 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”