Girls did better than boys in Junior Cert

THE gender gap in exam performance continued this year as official figures show girls got significantly better grades in most Junior Certificate subjects.

State Examinations Commission comparisons between results achieved by both sexes show a higher proportion of girls got honours grades (A, B or C) in all higher level subjects except for material technology, metalwork and environmental and social studies.

Among the most popular subjects, English showed one of the biggest gaps, as only 71% of boys who took the higher level exam got an honour, compared to more than 82% of female students. A difference of almost 10% is evident in Irish, where 82.7% of girls and 73.8% of boys got a higher level honours grade, while a slightly smaller gap exists for higher level French.