Boys are falling behind girls in every category of literacy and numeracy at every school level, according to the 2021 NAPLAN results. The worst performing category overall was in Year 9 writing, with one-in-five boys (23.4 percent) failing to meet the minimum national standards (band 6), compared to the one-in-ten of girls (11.9 percent). More girls also meet the national minimum standard in numeracy across all year levels, albeit it is the subject with the smallest achievement gap between genders. In Year 9, 94.1 percent of boys and 95.3 percent of girls met the minimum standard. Across all year levels, on average, one percent more girls are achieving the minimum standard compared to boys in numeracy. However, there are more high achieving boys in numeracy compared to girls, with 8.1 percent of Year 9 boys receiving a band 10 compared to 5.4 percent of girls. The Australian Curriculum, Assessment, and Reporting …