By Jordan Baker
One in five boys cannot write well enough by year 9, with experts warning the problem is partly caused by waning interest in reading and could lead to significant problems for boys in their final years of school.
Boys are twice as likely to be at or below national minimum standard (NMS) by age 15 than girls, with the proportions struggling to achieve that benchmark growing from an average of 3.9 per cent of boys in year 3 to 20.6 per cent of boys in year 9.
In comparison, an average of 1.7 per cent of girls were at or below the minimum standard in year 3 over the past 12 years of NAPLAN testing, compared with nine per cent in year 9, data reported in the recent NAPLAN Review shows.
Boys are twice as likely to be at or below national minimum standard (NMS) by age 15 than girls.Credit: Wayne Taylor
Students of both genders in country areas were also struggling, with more than 50 per cent of students in very remote areas at or below the standard.
"The implicit understanding that students have become reasonably independent in writing by year 10 appears problematic," said the review, released on Friday.
"At a deeper level, if writing is understood to be a key means through which students learn in all curriculum areas, then the data point to how year 9 student whose writing is assessed as below NMS are likely to face significant barriers to success in senior schooling."
Damon Thomas, a senior lecturer in English Education at the University of Tasmania, said there were many questions about the reliability and quality of the NAPLAN writing test, but the disparity between gender was large and consistent.
"It's such a significant gap," he said. "Looking at the scores on the writing test ... the greatest predictor is gender. It doesn't matter what school you're going to or your parents' education, since NAPLAN started, it's your gender.
"In high school you have these pretty drastic gaps. It's important that we think about what might be behind this gap." Boys tended to outperform girls in maths, but that gap was much narrower, Dr Thomas said.
Dr Thomas said writing was linked to other aspects of literacy, such as reading. "We've had this major drop in the interest in reading among children," he said.
"I don't think you can talk about this without touching on the impact of digital technology, and how easy it is for children these days to do other things with their time than sit down and read a book or write a story.
"This is not a writing in a silo problem. This is a literacy engagement problem. NAPLAN is a bit of a warning sign, but it has far reaching consequences if we have generations coming through who potentially don’t have the skills."
Dr Thomas said the job of encouraging boys to engage with words did not fall on teachers alone. "I think there's got to be a joint solution to this," he said. "Parents are going to really have to step up as well."
Jennifer Buckingham, the director of strategy for reading program Multilit, said boys tended to read less than girls, and reading was connected to writing quality. The books children read influence their writing ideas.
Spelling also plays a role, as it can be an obstacle to accuracy and fluency, and influence how enjoyable students find writing, as well as the word choices they make. "If they have trouble with spelling, they will make simpler word choices," Dr Buckingham said.
Parents could help by making sure children get opportunities to read, and exposing them to a range of books. "Boys like a certain type of book, non-fiction more so than narrative, and that restricts the sort of ideas they have," Dr Buckingham said.
"Books are expensive but there are libraries. Socio-economic factors shouldn't be a hindrance to making sure kids have access to books." Dr Buckingham said teacher librarians in schools were also key to making kids aware of the different reading options.
Retired librarian Sharon McGuinness said schools were closing or minimising libraries, but they were more important than ever.
"Teacher librarians play a crucial role in widening the reading of all their students," she said. "They also have the expertise to select books for the school library which can engage individual students across a variety of genres and interests.
"Teacher librarians can also implement strategies across the whole school to develop reading and writing cultures, in both primary and high schools."
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