Closing the education gap

Educationalists have long worried about the achievement and development gap that matches the gender gap among children. Such concerns lie behind the Government's decision to urge nurseries and childminders to get small boys writing more, and writing earlier.

It is deeply depressing that, according to official data, more than one in six boys cannot write their own name, or spell words like "dad" or "cat", after a year in school – and that this is double the proportion of girls similarly held back.

Delays in learning to write among boys have longer term negative consequences for society because the connection is well established between an ability to marshall one's thoughts on paper and broader emotional development.

The question is, what to do about boys? The advice from the children's minister, Dawn Primarolo, is to encourage boys to start writing through roleplay and by offering them new materials with which to write. Don't rely on the old-fashioned pencil; try sand, or even chocolate. (…)

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► The Independent