More girls avail of honours maths bonus points

Girls may have taken slightly greater advantage of the bonus points offered for Leaving Certificate maths, judging on a gender breakdown on numbers taking the higher-level exams.

According to the State Examinations Commission, the proportion of boys who sat higher-level maths in June remains higher than girls — 23% compared to almost 21%.

But this compares to 17.2% of boys and just 14.5% of girls choosing higher-level maths last year. The actual numbers involved in this year’s record high of more than 11,000 higher-level maths candidates were 5,972 male students and 5,159 females.