Top of the class: girls still beating boys with marks

GIRLS have outperformed their male classmates yet again in this year's Leaving Cert.

In a gender breakdown of this year's results by the State Examinations Commission, boys achieved a greater percentage of top grades in just a handful of higher-level subjects, including applied maths, engineering and Latin.

Meanwhile, at ordinary level, boys were just a fraction of a per cent ahead of their female colleagues in history while they also came out tops in engineering, construction studies, Japanese and combined physics and chemistry.

In higher-level maths, girls widened the gap between them and the boys. Over 82pc of girls received A, B or C grades, compared to just 79pc of boys.

Last year there was just a 1pc difference between the sexes.

In ordinary level, girls were ahead with just over 73pc achieving the top grades, compared to just over 65pc of boys.

Boys were also more likely to do badly at ordinary level with 11.8pc of them getting a D grade or lower, in contrast just 8.1pc of girls performed poorly.

Girls traditionally fare better than boys in the state exams and this trend is also reflected internationally.

At higher level, girls outperformed boys in a host of what are often considered to be 'male' subjects, including maths, physics and construction studies, where they enjoyed a lead of around 5pc.


- Breda Heffernan

Irish Independent