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.

The margin remains tighter in other popular subjects such as business studies and girls again outperformed boys at higher level maths, one of the remaining subjects at Leaving Certificate in which boys still do better at higher level.

A report published by the Department of Education this summer indicated that, in line with international trends, exam performance by female students improves each year when compared to their male counterparts.

Meanwhile, the opening of a new primary school by multi-denominational organisation Educate Together in north county Dublin is being put back by a week because of demand for three places for each one available. The Department of Education asked the group to set up a school in Balbriggan on August 27 to cater for dozens of children whose families had recently arrived in the area.

Educate Together said yesterday it had 106 applications for enrolment but it had only planned to accommodate 32 children when it was scheduled to open next Monday.

“The extent of this additional demand has forced the school to seek extra accommodation and postpone the scheduled opening date by one week. We are now working with the department to double the amount of space available for the school,” said chief executive Paul Rowe.

It is one of three new schools being opened at short notice in the capital this month, another being operated by Educate Together in Lucan and the third by the Catholic Church in Diswellstown.

Dublin City University’s head of education studies Dr Carmel Mulcahy told a conference yesterday while Irish schools lead the way in preventing exclusion, reform is needed to recognise diversity in our schools, particularly at primary level.