Parents talk about it. School reports allude to it. University enrolments prove it. Education is a girl’s domain. This week’s NAPLAN results added ballast to the argument that boys, by and large, are struggling with school and that struggle has become more profound over the years.

Boys are behind girls academically from the get-go. And by the time they get to year 9, they have fallen so far behind their female schoolmates that the gap seems almost irredeemable. And in numeracy, the only area where boys outperform girls, the gap is narrowing to a point of being almost inconsequential.