Leading article: Help the boys

How to teach boys is an issue that schools are now taking seriously.

How to teach boys is an issue that schools are now taking seriously. Yet again this year's GCSE and A-level results showed that boys were well behind girls, continuing a trend of more than 20 years. The good thing is that schools that are trying to engage boys are showing some improvement. Many boys, it seems, need different handling from girls. They are simply not prepared to tolerate boring lessons, and if they are sat on too hard, they play up. Let us hope that when Charles Clarke gets the report from the University of Cambridge next month he will take action, and ask all institutions to emulate Middleton Technology School in Rochdale and Deansfield High School in Wolverhampton.