Why are boys doing badly at school?

AROUND THE world, girls are more likely than boys to get no education at all. But once they are in a classroom, boys usually do worse. The gulf is widest in reading: in almost all countries that collect sufficient data girls are better readers than boys at ten years old. Boys also lag in international science tests, and have mostly given up a long-standing advantage in maths. Globally, colleges and universities now enrol just 88 men for every 100 women. These trends have long been starkest in rich countries, but are increasingly visible in poor ones, too—perhaps because the hurdles that long held schoolgirls back are gradually being knocked down. Why do boys do badly in school?