Girls tended to outperform boys in Junior Cert exams

Girls tended to receive better grades than boys in most Junior Cert subjects again this year, data from the State Examinations Commission (SEC) shows.

A gender breakdown of the 2019 Junior Cert results shows that young women tended to earn a higher grade in their State exams, while also tending to opt more for the higher level exam papers.

In higher level Irish, more than 87% of female students received a C grade or higher, with almost 15% receiving an A, a grade between 85 and 100%. This compared to 78% of male students who received a C or higher, and just over 8% who received an A.

Just under 2% of female students failed higher level Irish, compared to 2.8% of boys. In higher level Maths, just over 75% of girls received a C grade or higher compared to 74% of boys.

Young women also outperformed their male counterparts in both the higher and ordinary level English exam, Science, Business, Geography, French, German, Spanish and Art.

A high number of students failed higher level History in 2019; On average, one in ten students failed higher level history, with 10% of students receiving an E grade or lower.

Just under 8% of girls failed the subject, compared to 12.1% of boys. Just under 5% of girls received a grade of 40% or less in Science, compared to just over 8% of boys.