Gap widens as boys outperform girls at maths

Boys have stretched their outperformance of girls at higher-level Leaving Certificate maths again but female students still do better at most other subjects.

Last year, there was a significant bridging of the gap between the proportion of male and female students taking higher-level maths.

In 2011, 17.2% of boys and 14.5% of girls opted for higher-level exams in the subject, but the introduction of bonus points saw those figures rise last year to 23% and 21%, respectively.