Every year at exam-results time, we get the same old story from the media telling us just how badly boys are doing compared with girls. Sadly, the question as to why this is happening is rarely asked, and when it is the wrong answers are always trotted out: “boys think it’s uncool to be bright” etc etc. Strange that no-one ever thinks to ask the boys why it’s happening. 

A couple of years ago someone in Australia was bright enough to actually do that – they asked the boys; and they found that the vast majority of boys said they thought it was a good thing to be bright and well-educated.

The real reason, of course, is easy to see for those with eyes to see it; it’s the lack of men in the lives of the boys. Boys start off with a handicap as soon as they enter school. In infant schools almost every single teacher is a woman. The position is slightly improved when they enter junior school where there might be one or two men, but there are many such schools with an all-female staff. Even in our secondary schools men teachers are in the minority. So we have the ridiculous situation of women trying to teach boys how to grow up to be men, a subject they know nothing about. Watching a woman trying to organize a boys’ football match would be humorous beyond words were it not so tragic. 

Every Junior Mastermind so far has been won by a boy with very few girls even getting into the finals, sometimes none. But, if you notice, sitting in support in the audience are proud fathers.

The “Young Musician of the Year” competition this year resulted in an all-boy final; again with fathers much in evidence. Twelve-year-old Peter Moore, the trombonist who won, has a mother and father who are French-horn players.

The government is supposed to be concerned about the lack of men teachers, but being concerned is not enough; they must do something about it, something big and quickly.