http://tinyurl.com/zmo3uA generation of boys is leaving school unable to cope in the modern world because lessons have become "feminised", according to a renowned academic.
They are falling behind in exams and the job market because teachers fail to nurture traditional male traits such as competitiveness and leadership.
Dr Tony Sewell said schools instead celebrate qualities more closely associated with girls such as methodical working and attentiveness in class.
He warned that boys are becoming disaffected and flunk exams and job interviews because their competitive instincts have been discouraged.
Some become so alienated they turn to gang violence to vent their frustrated masculine sides.
Dr Sewell, a leading educational consultant and author, called for the replacement of some coursework with final exams and greater emphasis on outdoor adventure on the curriculum.
He also demanded a stepping up of efforts to recruit more male teachers, particularly to primary schools.
Dr Sewell, a former Leeds University education lecturer who now runs a science academy for boys in conjunction with Imperial College, said schools could encourage pupils to compete and show leadership through "Apprentice-style" lessons.
He is soon to conduct a summer school which he hopes will demonstrate that the format of the BBC ratings-winner can motivate boys to take an interest in science.
Youngsters will be split into teams each with a project manager while bosses of major companies will act as the Sir Alan Sugar figure.
The boys would be able to show they were "king of the jungle".
Dr Sewell will argue that boys are being failed by the school system at a major conference on educating boys being hosted tomorrow by the teaching union NASUWT.
Girls now decisively outperform boys at all levels of the school system up to the sixth form. The gender gap opens up early in primary school and continues in national curriculum tests, GCSEs and A-levels.
The gulf in achievement is said to have widened with the switch to a new A-level system in 2000 which divides course material into six bite-sized modules.
Some experts claim it downplays competition and rewards conscientiousness because candidates can pick up marks as they progress through the course.
Girls' success in public exams is increasingly translating into university acceptances - 54 per cent of last year's freshers were female.
In remarks that provoked immediate controversy, Dr Sewell claimed that lessons and public exams, with their emphasis on coursework and continuous assessment, are now more suited to girls.
"We have let down boys over the years" he said.
"Lots of boys seem unable to really cope with challenges that are presented to them, such as going to job interviews and some physical challenges, but mainly intellectual challenges.
"One of the reasons they are not doing as well as girls is that we haven't allowed boys to build up their capacity to meet the challenges of the world they live in.
"The school system does not value enough of the traditional male things like competition.
"We have challenged the 1950s patriarchy of the past and rightly said this is not a man's world. But we have thrown the boy out with the bath water.
"Boys are finding it increasingly difficult to cope where things are uncertain for them, specifically around competition or the use of physical strength. They have found the skills have been feminised.
"What seems to have been beaten out of them is any enthusiasm for anything.
"Some boys are resorting to gangs. They present a world where basic male instincts hold sway."
He said boys needed to be able to "value something about being male" while acknowledging women had an equal place in society.
"Somehow that is not being done in modern schooling.
"The system rewards a very narrow band of skills.
"If you sit quietly at the back of the classroom and don't interrupt, you are more likely to be rewarded than if you are restless.
"Some boys may not be academic but have got strong common sense and practical skills. Where in the system do we reward those types of common sense skills?"
He said girls would often complete a given project because they were "meant to" even if it was boring.
He added: "There's evidence that boys want to know there's a purpose for doing something. We need to look at the way in which we teach in schools to make it more interesting."
This could include experimenting with lesson and exam formats to inspire boys.
"Exams rather than coursework seem to be better for boys so there could be a return to that. But there are different ways of assessing. You could use for example a boardroom-type test."
Dr Sewell said the summer academy for boys organised by his Generating Genius charity had adapted the Apprentice TV show for science classes, with prizes for the winners.
Dr Sewell, who is himself black, has previously sparked controversy after arguing that an Afro-Caribbean youth culture which values consumer goods over academic achievement is holding black children back at school.
Another obstacle for boys, and not just black boys, is the neglect of them at school.
He added: "In the Seventies we changed the story for girls. Our attitude was the boys can get on with it.
"It's a question of balance and I believe it has gone too far the other way."
But Dr Sewell's stance provoked fury among head teachers and female education experts. Dr John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said some remarks were "sweeping generalisations" which "may have a grain of truth in some particular instances but are not helpful."
He added: "Schools have put an immense amount of effort into raising boys' achievement in recent years, just as they did for girls in the previous generation."
Dr Bethan Marshall, senior lecturer in education at King's College London, said she and many women would "bitterly resent" the characterisation of girls as tidy and pliant.
She added: "The curriculum massively disadvantages girls. They are told if they are obedient and work hard they will do well but in the workplace that's not true.
"Despite doing less well in exams, boys are better paid."
