Background to the Research

• During the past few years considerable attention has been given by the British press to the differential performance of boys and girls in examinations at 16+. More specifically, it is alleged that girls in England and Wales consistently out-perform boys at GCSE and, although boys appear to do better than girls at A-levels, the gap is closing.
  
  
• There is no reason to suppose that these claims can not be applicable to Northern Ireland, which has a rather different education system. The Equal Opportunities Commission for Northern Ireland therefore commissioned research to establish the degree to which educational attainment between boys and girls in Northern Ireland differs.

The Research Approach

The study was carried out between April - August 1996 and had three main objectives:

• To critically review the literature relating to gender differences in academic performance, with particular reference to GCSE and A-level examinations in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
• To compare the achievements of boys and girls in the GCSE and A-level examinations conducted by the Northern Ireland Board during the 1988 to 1995 period.
• Where relevant information was available, to compare the results for Northern Ireland with those of England and Wales.

Main Findings

• Findings from a wide range of studies suggest that the relationship between gender and educational achievement is a complex one which varies between different countries, over even relatively short time periods and between pupils of different ages.
  
  
• Explaining patterns is difficult. Examination formats, the sociology of the classroom, motivation, the expectation of pupils, teachers and parents, and the career aspirations of girls and boys have all been examined as possible causal factors. All are probably significant but none provides a simple conclusive explanation.
  
  
• Girls are now equaling or out-performing boys in almost all subjects in GCSE examinations. Only in Biology are boys substantially ahead.

• At A-level boys have historically achieved more high grade passes than girls and whilst the gap has narrowed, and in some areas reversed, boys still achieve higher aggregate results than girls.
  
  
• Differences in the subject entries from boys and girls have also been an important source of inequality. Inequalities have narrowed in recent years but girls still enter in greater numbers for examinations in arts and languages whilst boys continue to form the majority in most of the science subjects.
  
  
• The major empirical evidence in this study is the examination of the patterns of entry and performance of pupils entering the Northern Ireland GCSE and A-level examinations. The broad picture which emerges for GCSE entry and performance is very similar to that found in analysis of results for England and Wales. In 1995, girls achieved more A-C passes in English, English Literature, Modern Languages, History, Geography, single and double award Modular Science, Music and Art and Design than boys and their achievements equaled those of boys in Mathematics, Additional Mathematics, non modular and double award sciences, Physics, Chemistry and Biology.
  
  
• The Patterns of entry continued to reflect traditional patterns of choice. Almost all pupils took English and Mathematics but more girls chose English Literature, Modern Languages, Music and History, whilst boys opted in greater proportions for Additional Mathematics, the individual sciences, Geography, Art and Design.
  
  
• The Northern Ireland A-level results present a more complex picture and differ from England and Wales. The reversal from higher performance of girls at GCSE level to higher male performance at A-level which has been found in England and Wales is not repeated in Northern Ireland. Data from 1995 shows that girls to continued to perform as well as or slightly better than boys in almost all subjects.
  
  
• Looking at the whole sequence from 1998-1995 however reveals quite marked differences in the relative success of boys and girls. This means that in terms of getting higher aggregate grades girls and boys changes places several times in this period.
  
  
• The overall picture of Northern Ireland GCSE and A-level data is of increasingly complex interaction between gender and performance. It is no longer valid to make simplistic claims about girls' 'disadvantage' but on the other hand to rush into seeing boys as the new 'disadvantaged' group would also be an over simplification.
  
  
• The difference at A-level, where girls in Northern Ireland do not appear to fall behind in the same way as in England and Wales may be related to some of the specific structural features of the Northern Ireland education system such as the dual Catholic/Protestant school system, the selection procedure at age eleven and the continuing existence of a considerable number of single sex schools.
  
  
• This is clearly a complex area and one which requires a much more detailed study but the research reinforces the need to avoid generalisation and to stress the range of interacting factors which are likely to be subsumed in apparently simple headline figures.