This morning on Radio 4's Today, Barry Sheerman MP and the author Ian Rankin discussed the problem that one in five 14-year-old boys have reading ages below that expected of 11 year-olds. The discussion is well worth listening to but there are a few talking points worth tackling. The first is that, while the widening gap between girls and boys demonstrates there is a problem, we shouldn’t necessarily expect a school system to ensure boys perform as well as girls in reading tests. Other factors (such as natural aptitude, differing ages of development and social cues) might be playing a larger role. It is enough of a challenge to get everyone to a reasonable standard of literacy, besides having to compensate for disadvantages caused elsewhere. But on that point of literacy standards, it is worth underlining that there is a...
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