Boys are behind girls at every stage of education – from reception year to university entry
| Area |
Details & Key Statistics |
|
01
EDUCATION
Overall Education Pipeline
|
Boys are behind girls at every stage of education — from reception year to university entry.
- Pattern: The gap appears across school readiness, Key Stage 2, GCSEs, Level 3 attainment and higher education entry.
- Disadvantage: Boys eligible for free school meals are especially far behind at several stages.
Source refs: Supplied text and source refs [1]–[14].
|
02
EARLY YEARS
Foundation Stage
(Ages 3–5)
|
Only 60.7% of boys are “school-ready”, compared with 75.3% of girls.
- Overall: 60.7% of boys are officially described as having a “good level of development”, compared with 75.3% of girls.
- Government target: The key overall target is 75%.
- Free school meals: Only 43.5% of boys on free school meals are school-ready, compared with 59.3% of girls in the same group.
- Not on free school meals: 66.0% of boys are school-ready, compared with 79.3% of girls.
Source refs: [1]
|
03
KEY STAGE 2
SATS
(Ages 7–11)
|
In reading, writing and maths combined, 59% of boys met the expected standard compared with 66% of girls.
- Combined standard: In reading, writing and maths combined for 2024/25, 59% of boys met the expected standard, compared with 66% of girls.
- Writing: 66% of boys met the expected standard, compared with 78% of girls.
- Reading: 72% of boys met the expected standard, compared with 78% of girls.
- Maths: Boys were ahead, with 75% meeting the expected standard, compared with 73% of girls.
- Free school meals: In reading, writing and maths combined, 44% of boys on free school meals met the expected standard, compared with 51% of girls in the same peer group.
- Not on free school meals: 66% of boys reached the expected standard, compared with 72% of girls.
Note: The supplied text said “2045/25”; this table uses “2024/25” as the apparent intended academic year.
Source refs: [2]
|
04
KEY STAGE 4
GCSEs
(Ages 14–16)
|
Boys are less likely than girls to achieve strong passes in English and maths.
- Grade 5+ in English & maths: 43.9% of boys in England achieved grades 5+, compared with 47.0% of girls.
- Free school meals: 24.9% of boys on free school meals achieved grades 5+ in English and maths, compared with 26.9% of girls on free school meals.
- Not eligible for free school meals: 50.7% of boys achieved grades 5+, compared with 54.1% of girls.
- Lowest-performing male FSM groups: Gypsy Roma boys (3.0%), Black Caribbean boys (18.3%), White and Black Caribbean boys (18.3%) and White British boys (18.6%).
- Grade 4+ in English & maths: 62.9% of boys achieved grades 4+, compared with 66.8% of girls.
Source refs: [3], [4], [5]
|
05
KEY STAGE 5
A Levels & T Levels
(Ages 16–18)
|
Fewer boys take A levels, meaning fewer high-grade awards go to males even where entry-level percentages are close.
- A levels C+: 76.7% of A levels taken by 18-year-old males in 2024/25 were graded C or above, compared with 80.4% for females.
- A levels C+ award gap: Because boys take fewer A levels, 58,700 fewer grade C or above A levels were awarded to males than to females.
- A levels A+: 28.7% of A levels taken by 18-year-old males achieved an A grade or above, compared with 28.5% for females.
- A levels A+ award gap: Because fewer boys take A levels, 15,600 fewer boys achieved those grades.
- T levels merit+: 58.2% of T levels taken by males received a merit pass or above, compared with 75.2% for females.
Source refs: [6], [7]
|
06
HIGHER ED
Level 6
(19 and under)
|
For every 100 women aged 19 and under who go to university, only 78 of their male peers do.
- 2025 entrants/attendance: 159,000 UK males aged 19 and under attended higher education, compared with 204,000 females.
- Share of total: Males made up 44% of the total, while females made up 56%.
- Numerical gap: The difference was 45,000 fewer young men.
- Entry by age 19: In 2023/24, 39.5% of male pupils entered higher education by age 19, compared with 52.5% of female pupils.
- Relative likelihood: Teenage women were 33% more likely to attend higher education than their male peers.
- Lowest entry rates among FSM boys: Irish Traveller boys (10.0%) and White British boys (13.8%).
- Highest entry rates among FSM boys: Chinese heritage boys (67.1%) and Black African heritage boys (52.9%).
Source refs: [8], [9]
|
|
07
EXCLUSIONS
School Exclusions
|
Boys were excluded from school at more than twice the number of girls.
- England, 2023/24: 7,695 boys were excluded from school, compared with 3,190 girls.
- Ratio: This is approximately 2.4× as many boys as girls.
Source refs: [10]
|
|
08
APPRENTICESHIPS
Apprenticeship Starts
|
Apprenticeship starts by males aged 18 and under have fallen by 29% since 2017/18.
- 2024/25: 43,820 males aged 18 and under started an apprenticeship.
- 2017/18 comparison: This was down from 61,680.
- Change: The fall was 29%.
Source refs: No bracketed source ref supplied in original text.
|
09
NEETS
Not in Education, Employment or Training
(Ages 16–24)
|
Between October and December 2025, 510,000 young men aged 16–24 in the UK were NEET.
- Total: 510,000 young men aged 16–24 were not in education, employment or training.
- Unemployed: 266,000 were unemployed.
- Economically inactive: 244,000 were economically inactive.
- Trend: The number of economically inactive young men overtook unemployed young men in 2017–18.
- Sickness-related inactivity: In 2024, 3.2% of young men aged 16–24 were inactive due to being long-term or temporarily sick — an estimated 120,000.
Source refs: [11], [12]
|
|
10
TEACHING
Male Teachers
|
Men remain underrepresented in teaching, especially in early years, nursery and primary settings.
- Overall: In 2024/25, 24% of teachers were male.
- Nursery and primary: 14% of teachers were male.
- Secondary: 35% of teachers were male.
- Special schools and state-funded alternative provision: 24% of teachers were male, including PRUs.
- Early years teachers: 3% were male.
Source refs: [13], [14]
|
__
References
[1] Department for Education (2025), Early years foundation stage profile results 2024/25: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/early-years-foundation-stage-profile-results/2024-25
[2] Department for Education (2025), Key Stage 2 attainment 2024/25: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/key-stage-2-attainment-revised-2025
[3] Department for Education (2025), Key stage 4 performance 2024/25: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/key-stage-4-performance/2024-25
[4] Department for Education (2025), Key stage 4 performance 2024/25: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/fast-track/1f770076-112b-45c2-5468-08de072d13df
[5] Department for Education (2025), Key stage 4 performance 2024/25:: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/fast-track/1f770076-112b-45c2-5468-08de072d13df
[6] Centre for Policy Research on Men and Boys (2025), A level and T level results show gender attainment gap remains, 2025: https://menandboys.org.uk/a-level2025/ and Ofqual (2025), A level outcomes in England 2025: https://analytics.ofqual.gov.uk/apps/Alevel/Outcomes/
[7] Department for Education (2026), Provisional T level results 2024/25: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/provisional-t-level-results/2024-25
[8] UCAS, UCAS Undergraduate end of cycle data resources, 2025: https://www.ucas.com/data-and-analysis/undergraduate-statistics-and-reports/ucas-undergraduate-end-of-cycle-data-resources-2025
[9] Department for Education (2025), Widening participation in higher education 2023/24: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/widening-participation-in-higher-education/2023-24
[10] Department for Education (2025), Suspensions and permanent exclusions in England, 2023/24: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/suspensions-and-permanent-exclusions-in-england/2023-24
[11] Office for National Statistics (2026), Young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) Oct-Dec 2025: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/unemployment/datasets/youngpeoplenotineducationemploymentortrainingneettable1
[12] Department for Education (2025), Annua NEET Briefing 2024: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/neet-statistics-annual-brief/2025 and estimate made by Centre for Policy Research on Men and Boys.
[13] Department for Education (2025), Teaching Workforce 2024/25: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england/2024
[14] UK Government (2019), Calls for more men to work in the early years: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/calls-for-more-men-to-work-in-the-early-years
_1.webp)
.png)
.jpg)
%201920x1080%20px.jpeg)
