British schools are teaching young boys to aim low

Telegraph

26-05-2025

Some of the gardens which were on display at Chelsea Flower Show last week will now be en route to schools and colleges around the country. One of them will live at Uxbridge College, based in a London borough ranked one of the worst for education. I should know, given that I went to school in the area.
The theme of the garden now zooming its way to Zone 6 is one of resilience, with seeds sprouting up through difficult conditions. Sponsored by the King's Trust, designer Joe Perkins has said his garden represents optimism and hope for the future.
It's a great project, but let's not forget that Britain's state education system can be just as inhospitable for young people as the hardy soil these seeds are sprouting from. And it can be a particularly harsh place for boys.
The challenges are widespread. For a start, boys are much more likely to have identified special educational needs than girls (22pc compared to 12pc, according to official data) and so many will not be getting enough social or educational support in large classrooms.
Boys are also far less likely to go on to higher education (40pc of boys compared to 54pc of girls), particularly if they are from disadvantaged backgrounds. Only 13pc of white British boys eligible for free school meals go on to progress to higher education compared to 23pc of girls who are.
Girls do better across all headline Department for Education (DfE) measures than boys, who are also nearly twice as likely as girls to be suspended and more than twice as likely to be permanently excluded. Even before high-school, the chasm is clear – by the end of reception, at around the age of five, just less than two thirds of boys are said to have a 'good level of development' compared to three quarters of girls.
The problems are clear, yet still the issue persists. Generation after generation, British schools are teaching young boys to aim low. Boys' behaviour and influences are now 'a defining issue of our time', Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, said in a speech last month. Her words echoed a similar sentiment from Sir Gareth Southgate who used to encourage his players to discuss their emotions during his time as England manager.
One male high school teacher tells me he's trying to encourage male students in his school to open up with each other more and recognise that there's more than one way to be considered 'masculine'. He's concerned that a 'laddy, sports teacher stereotype still survives', mirroring a dynamic which replicates into wider society as boys struggle to find vulnerable but strong versions of masculinity.
The absence of male role models in the classroom is an urgent issue – the proportion of secondary school teachers who are male is now at its lowest proportion since records began. As the Education Secretary has pointed out, just one in four teachers in UK schools are men (and only one in seven at nursery and primary school level). In her speech, Ms Phillipson highlighted that while the number of teachers in the country has increased by 28,000 since 2010, just 533 are male. That's a big problem given that there is evidence that pupils have higher learning outcomes when they have 'a teacher like me' in the classroom.
The fix won't just be filling classrooms with more men, but making sure that those men show an active interest in inspiring those who might otherwise be left behind. The maths teacher I spoke to says one idea could be to 'actively involve more boys in some of the things we've shoved down into primary school – in play, to some extent, and socialising in a way which is not purely competitive and activity-based'.
But where are all the male teachers? Experts have blamed the decline on men in the staffroom on a perception that teaching is a lower status job with low earning potential. I've certainly spoken to men who admit that they are tempted to sack off teaching for a better-paid life with shorter hours. And as men abandon the profession, boys are left searching for someone to look up to.
This is a particular issue for boys growing up in single-parent households. Some 2.5 million children in Britain have no father figure at home, according to the Centre for Social Justice. Amid rising concerns that a lack of real-life male role models could lead boys towards toxic online influences (more than half of schools and colleges in England are concerned about online safety) there is a drastic need for change.
A recent report published by the Higher Education Policy Institute said a 'boy-positive' learning environment needed to be developed in schools, warning that under-educated men could veer towards political extremes. Yet despite rising concerns about male under-achievement, ministers have rejected calls to introduce a minister for men and boys.
There's no doubt that the UK's current epidemic of youth unemployment starts in the classroom. A report by charity Impetus showed last week that young people from underprivileged backgrounds are 66pc more likely not to be in education, employment or training (Neet) than average. The issues have grown far worse since the Covid crisis, with the number of 16-24-year-old male Neets up 40pc since Covid, compared to just 7pc among women.
Our education system, and with it the culture of low expectations for male students, is in need of a shake-up. As British men give up on work faster than anywhere else in the richest parts of the world, the seeds being sown at school must not be ignored.