Reflections on the First Public Hearing of the Inquiry into the Factors Driving Educational Attainment

It's time to support the million plus boys and young men across Australia, who have overlapping disadvantages...

I attended the first public hearing of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education's Inquiry into the Factors Driving Educational Attainment at Parliament House on Thursday. It was an encouraging start, with thoughtful, bipartisan questioning from MPs and genuine interest in lifting educational outcomes across Australia.

The hearing confirmed what the evidence has been showing for decades: boys lag girls in literacy, Year 12 completion and university participation, yet there remains no comparable national strategy to address these persistent gaps...

One of the strongest themes was the need to move beyond describing problems and towards identifying, rigorously evaluating and scaling what actually works. Kate Chaney MP repeatedly challenged the Australian Government Department of Education, ACARA, and Australian Education Research Organisation to identify programs with strong evidence of success. The inability to point towards proven, scalable interventions was striking...

There was also welcome support for evidence-based teaching. AERO CEO Dr Jenny Donovan acknowledged Australia’s slow adoption of explicit instruction, cognitive science and evidence-based teacher preparation (approaches backed by substantial research). The hearing also highlighted the importance of early literacy, structured teaching, Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), and identifying struggling students before they disengage.

My reflection is that Australia should focus additional support on the boys facing multiple overlapping disadvantages. Not all boys, but those experiencing developmental vulnerability, disability, learning difficulties, poverty, fatherlessness, trauma, chronic absenteeism, regional disadvantage, or early literacy failure. We should also recruit more male teachers, strengthen vocational pathways, rigorously evaluate education programs, and ensure successful reforms are expanded nationally.

The Standing Committee on Education has a real opportunity to build on the unfinished work of the landmark 2002 report Boys: Getting It Right…

Improving boys’ educational attainment isn’t about taking opportunities away from girls. It’s about ensuring that every Australian child has the opportunity to reach their full potential...

David Maywald