Why Arab schoolboys are getting trounced by girls
Bullying, beatings and old-fashioned attitudes all play a role
MUHAMMAD ADMITS he was not an eager student. The young Emirati says he slept through school, if he turned up at all. When he was 17, desperate teachers arranged for him to spend one day a week in classes put on just for disaffected males. These aimed to raise ambition and to grab him with more practical kinds of schoolwork. Now 20 and completing military service, Muhammad says this last-ditch intervention saved him from flunking. A career as an army officer looks possible. Even training to be a doctor. Perhaps.
This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Boy trouble”
From the May 7th 2022 edition
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