Girls have once again spectacularly outperformed boys in this year's Leaving Cert. Even in traditionally "male" disciplines such as science and maths, girls secured more honours grades at higher level, write Seán Flynn and Emmet Oliver.
The latest figures confirm a trend present throughout the education system, where girls are increasingly doing better than their male counterparts. In the third-level sector, there are now considerably more female students.
While the gap between male and female performance has been widening for some time, the size of the gap this year surprised observers.
Boys failed to outperform girls in any of the popular Leaving Cert subjects. For example, 73 per cent of girls achieved honours in higher level geography, compared to 66 per cent of boys. In French, 72 per cent of girls scored honours, 10 points higher than males.
The most striking gap was in physics, where 76 per cent of girls secured honours, over 12 per cent more than the boys.
Educationalists blame a range of factors for the trend. Among these is a so-called "laddish" culture among teenage boys which regards study as unfashionable.
Teachers also report that boys are much more likely to engage in part-time work, with many working over 12 hours a week. The Leaving Cert, with its emphasis on rote learning, tends to reward those who study consistently. Research shows that many boys do not study regularly and do not complete homework.
This year's figures show that boys are also more likely to fail ordinary level papers.
About eight per cent of boys failed ordinary level Irish, compared to three per cent of girls. About 16 per cent of boys failed ordinary level maths, compared to 13 per cent of girls.
In further reaction to yesterday's results, the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, signalled he was ready to take radical action to achieve greater equality in the education system.
Speaking on Today FM's The Last Word, he said the results confirmed once again that some students were losing out.
In particular, the Minister said, he would examine the €350 million spent on student support services in the third-level sector.
He questioned whether this money was helping to achieve greater equality.
Meanwhile, ICTU's spokesman on education, Mr Oliver Donohue, said the exam was not helping to tackle inequality.
"While some progress has been made recently in tackling disadvantage in education, through innovations like the Leaving Certificate Applied, today's results are further evidence of the deep inequalities that persist within our education system".
The Labour party spokesman on communications, Mr Eamonn Gilmore, blamed poor government support for the disappointing results in science and maths. "The rate of failure at mathematics and science subjects like physics are of considerable concern at a time when the economy needs graduates with good scientific qualifications to meet the labour shortages in the science and technology sector. The Minister must initiate a review of the syllabi in these subjects to ascertain if more can be done to reverse the trend towards higher failure rates", he said.
"There is a drop in the number of students taking science subjects at Leaving Cert level. According to the recent Task Force on the Physical Sciences, there appears to be consensus that science papers at Leaving Cert level are marked more harshly than other subjects. As part of his review of the syllabi of these courses, the Minister should also fast-track the review of this anomaly in the marking of Leaving Cert papers", Mr Gilmore added.