The Forgotten Half: Why the 2025 Exam Results Are a Wake-Up Call for the Boy Child
By Ceaser Siwale, Vice-Chair BCAZ
Lusaka, Zambia — The release of the 2025 national examination results by Education Minister Douglas Syakalima was more than just an annual academic ritual; it was a siren. For the first time in recent memory, the government explicitly flagged a “shocking” trend: the Zambian Boy Child is significantly lagging.
While we celebrate the hard-won successes of the Girl Child, a testament to decades of necessary affirmative action and advocacy, the data reveal an unsettling reversal. Boys are failing at higher rates, dropping out earlier, and disengaging from the very systems meant to prepare them for the future. The question we must now ask as a nation, and as a business community, is: What happens to a society when half its future workforce is left behind?
The “Masculinity Trap”
To understand why boys are failing, we must look beyond the classroom. The crisis is rooted in the “Masculinity Trap”, a rigid set of cultural expectations that are actively working against boys’ education.
In many Zambian households, the “Mwamuna Samalila” (A man does not cry) ethos teaches boys from a tender age to suppress vulnerability. In an academic setting, this is disastrous. A boy struggling with Mathematics is far less likely to ask for help than his female counterpart, fearing it will make him look “weak”. Instead, he suffers in silence, eventually disengaging or acting out to mask his insecurity.
Furthermore, economic pressure disproportionately targets boys. In low-income communities, the boy is often viewed as an immediate economic asset rather than a long-term investment. While girls are increasingly protected to stay in school, boys are pressured to “man up” and provide. The allure of quick cash on the streets, in vending, or minibus conducting pulls them out of the classroom, trapping them in a cycle of low-skilled labour and poverty.
Policy Gaps: The Case for “Both-Back”
Our current policy framework also needs recalibration. For years, affirmative action policies, such as lower cut-off points for girls, were essential to level the playing field. However, in an era when girls are outperforming boys across many metrics, we must ensure equity doesn’t become exclusion.
Crucially, we need to re-examine our approach to teenage pregnancy. Zambia’s “Re-entry Policy” has been a lifeline for teen mothers, enabling them to return to class. But what of the teen father? Often, the “boy responsible” is suspended, expelled, or shamed into dropping out to “fend for the family.”
Advocacy groups like BCAZ are championing a “Both-Back Policy”. This approach recognises that pushing a teen father out of school guarantees that the new baby will be raised by an uneducated parent with low earning potential. Keeping the boy in school is not just an educational strategy; it is an anti-poverty strategy for the next generation.
Beyond the Classroom: The Role of Corporate Zambia
This is not a problem the government can solve alone. It requires a “whole-of-society” approach, where the private sector plays a pivotal role in keeping boys engaged.
Education does not happen in a vacuum. For many boys, the motivation to stay in school comes from outside the classroom, through sports, mentorship, and skills training. This is where strategic CSRbecomes a game-changer.
A prime example of this solution in action is the partnership between Pangaea and BCAZ. By sponsoring kits for the Blue Foxes Football Club in Kabwe, Pangaea didn’t just donate jerseys; they invested in a retention tool.
For the boys in that team, football is the “hook.” It brings them into a controlled environment where positive male role models can mentor them. It teaches them discipline, teamwork, and resilience, skills that transfer directly to the classroom. Initiatives like this, or the IT training partnerships for vulnerable boys, provide tangible alternatives to the “school of the street.” They show boys that society values them, sees them, and is willing to invest in them.
The Cost of Inaction
If we do not heed the warning of the 2025 results, the cost will be high. A generation of uneducated, underemployed, and frustrated young men is a recipe for social instability. It leads to higher crime rates, entrenched gender-based violence, and a “marriage squeeze” where educated women struggle to find partners with compatible life goals.
Reclaiming the boy child is not about pulling back support for girls. Equity is not a zero-sum game. It is about realising that, for Zambia to thrive truly—to achieve the economic diversification and growth we aspire to, we need all our children firing on all cylinders.
The “shock” of 2025 must not become the tragedy of 2035. Through policy reform, parental engagement, and strategic corporate partnerships like the one between Pangaea and BCAZ, we can ensure the “Forgotten Half” is found.
