One of the key themes of this web-site has been following how the feminisation of education (link) has betrayed two generations of boys with the changeover from O-levels to GCSE's in 1988 being the catastrophic event. There has been much commentary on the issue including recently a book by Leonard Sax (link) and a scorching new article by Martin Newland in the Daily Mail (link).
The betrayal of generations of boys is now starting to be recognised and while the Government are on the surface concerned, the key structures causing this betrayal are not being touched and are not reaching the grassroots, that is, the schools themselves.
This is especially the case as schools have been feminised with 13 times as many female primary school teachers than men. When it comes to teacher training, the most recent intake shows there were 26,217 women and 9,375 men. At primary level it was 14,183 women and 2,301 men. It means that boys, many of hwom have no male role models in their lives, are not being taught by men when they need disclipline, challenge and understanding.
The Government and the education system will only be playing lip service to the problem unless they reform the structures so that the educational needs of both boys and girls are treated separately. It used to be the case that supposedly the education system was biased against women. Whilst that could have been the case, it is now, beyond doubt, biased against boys.
The problem is that with feminist fundamentalism sweeping away all before it, whilst there is some concern, there is precious little real action. The Government and, with some exceptions (link) the education establishment do not really care about boys, only girls matter to them.
In that regard, three things (at least) should happen:-
(1) The re-introduction of O-levels for boys and girls who wish to take them. The GCSE would also be maintained (link) for those who wanted to use it.
(2) Single sex teaching and schools to be the mainstay of the educational structure especially at secondary schools.
(3) Out reach work to recruit more male teachers at every level of education. Many men lose their jobs in the coming economic downturn - retrain them to be teachers.
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