Girls still outperforming boys in reading

Irish girls are continuing to significantly outperform boys in reading skills, according to a major international education survey.

The survey, carried out by the OECD among 15-year-olds in 43 countries, shows the Republic is placed in the top six for reading ability, the second best in Europe.

While the overall survey results were published two years ago and seen as a major boost for the education system, new data released yesterday shows a worrying gap in performance between boy and girls in reading and maths. Female students in Ireland perform up to one-third better than males in reading ability, and slightly better in science, a pattern reflected in most other industrialised countries.

The figures also show a greater incidence of literacy problems among Irish male students than among females.

Irish girls reported greater interest in reading than boys, with 25 per cent of females reporting that they did not read in their spare time on a daily basis compared to 42 per cent of males.

The gap between boys and girls was reversed in maths, however, with male students performing better than girls.

The OECD report says improving the level of engagement of males in reading activities and females in maths needs to be a major policy objective, if education authorities are to narrow the gender achievement gap.

Overall, Ireland's performance in maths was not as strong as in reading skills, with the Republic in 16th place, just above the OECD average.

In line with other sections of the survey, Asian countries such as Hong Kong, Japan and Korea dominated the maths statistics, along with New Zealand, Finland and Canada.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey, which was carried out in 2000, is one of the most wide-ranging investigations into education standards in the world.

Poor figures for some industrialised nations such as Germany prompted severe criticism about the country's education system when the figures were published and led to a new approach to education policy in the country.

New figures in the study also suggest that school attendance in Ireland lags behind the top-achieving countries.

Some 57 per cent of Irish students said they had not skipped classes in the two weeks prior to the study, compared to an OECD average of 64 per cent.

The proportion of students who said they had not skipped classes in the same period was much higher in countries such as Hong Kong (90 per cent), Japan (86 per cent) and Portugal (82 per cent). These figures, however, were based on students' accounts and not on school records. Irish students illustrated a significant "sense of belonging" to their school, the report shows. The mean score for Irish students was just above the OECD country average, with no difference between Irish male and female students.

However, students in Hong Kong, who performed at the same level as Irish students in reading literacy and performed better in mathematical and scientific literacy, reported a far lower sense of belonging.

There was no obvious association between sense of belonging and ability across the field of study, according to the report.