Talk:Education
The problem comes from measuring education in years of formal schooling. This comes with a couple of problems. (1) Not every year of formal schooling is equally valuable. A year in engineering is worth more to the individual and society than a year in gender studies. (2) Not all education is acquired formally.
While there are a number of recognised problems with boys in education. I think something else is going on as well:
I think many young men realise that the value proposition in tertiary education has changed and they are finding alternatives.
In contrast many young women are going because it's what their friends and parents did.
We know that, in general, women are significantly more consensus driven than men. Indeed, feminists cite this as an advantage.