Rector rejects NCEA scores

Boys 'do fine' at school

Southland Boys' High School rector Ian Baldwin has criticised the comparison between boys' and girls' NCEA results, saying it does not accurately reflect male achievement at secondary school.

National NCEA results for 2008 were released last week and once again suggested girls were more likely to get NCEA qualifications than boys. Only 59 per cent of boys passed level one, compared with 68 per cent of girls.

The gap was even wider when comparing level three results 47 per cent for boys and 62 per cent for girls.

However, Mr Baldwin said the vast differences in male and female learning meant girls were more suited to NCEA assessment and boys were getting a lot more out of school than results suggested.

"As boys hit puberty and their brains develop, they become more immediate in their thinking, hence the attraction to quick thrills like fast cars and Xbox games," he said.

"That makes it harder to engage boys in learning. It's why they're more inclined to do just enough to scrape through, or why they're often keen on leaving school for easy money to pay for their car."

Parents needed to look at the overall progress made by their sons during secondary school before criticising their exam results, he said.

"In our case, 30 per cent of students who arrive here are behind national literacy and numeracy standards, yet we had 73 per cent of our year 13s achieve University Entrance last year."

Mr Baldwin said if people were going to compare schools solely on their NCEA results, they should be comparing apples with apples.

Results from last week showed Southland Boys' NCEA pass rates were below both the national average and its decile five average for levels one and two.

It exceeded its decile average for level three.

However, when compared solely to male candidates from decile five schools, Southland Boys' was within 1 per cent of the level one average and surpassed the level two average by 10 per cent.

Despite that, Mr Baldwin said the gender gap was still a disappointment and more debate was needed to address the problem.

Some of the problem stemmed from the "staunch Kiwi male" stereotype many boys were being encouraged to watch rugby rather than read a book at home, he said.

The NCEA system was heading in the right direction by offering "merit" and "excellence" passes, which gave boys something to strive for, he said.

- © Fairfax NZ News