Boys are falling behind girls at every stage of school and are more likely to repeat a grade or drop out, finds new research from the University of Stellenbosch.

While roughly equal numbers of boys and girls enrol for grade 10, by the time they reach grade 12 about 100,000 more girls are enrolled than boys. At the other end of the spectrum, boys who start grade 1 at the minimum possible age of five-and-a-half are much more likely to repeat the year than girls. And in grade 4, girls outperform boys on language tests, the researchers found...

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