The laddish culture may explain the gender gap between boys and girls in theLeaving Certificate results. But with girls starting to behave just asbadly, will things even up?

The Leaving Certificate results give rise each year to major a surprise - panic, even. For years girls were playing catch-up in terms of results and points. However, in the last five years, they have overtaken boys and, perhaps more surprisingly, have done so in the areas of study where boys were regarded as having an advantage, for example mathematics.

The first point to reflect on is that this can only be considered "underachievement" if we had some reason for thinking that boys should do better than girls in school!

In other words, it underlines the expectations that we have about the relative performance of boys and girls. An equally important point is that the difference in the Leaving Certificate in the performance of boys and girls is consistent, but not large. When compared with differences associated with social background, they are minimal.

My view is that the differences are part of a development phase. When we look at primary school as well as some results from colleges/universities and into adulthood we find that the differences in the Leaving Certificate are somewhat anomalous. This is the broader picture that needs to be considered. We can then come back to the question of why the differences between girls's and boys' grades occur at Leaving Certificate level

School achievement

The Educational Research Centre at St Patrick's College, Dublin, has tracked the reading achievement of children in fifth class over the last 25 years. A number of interesting features of the most recent results, published in 2000, are worth mentioning.

Firstly, girls do better overall and there is some indication that the gap between boys and girls has increased. However, it is also of interest that the difference is found in some domains of reading, but not others. For example, there is no significant difference with regard to "expository" prose, that is text that conveys information or facts. And even in those tests where differences are found, they are only about one-fifth of the size of social background differences.

Another finding from the national reading survey of fifth class may give us a lead as to why boys are not doing as well as girls. More than half of girls but only one-third of boys read books every day.

On the other hand, more boys than girls read newspapers every day. This links neatly with the finding that girls are better in tests of narrative prose and that no difference is found for expository prose. In other words, the link is not simply with school experiences, but with the broader interests and activities of boys and girls.

A similar study focusing on mathematics in fourth class shows similar performance of boys and girls. However, that study shows that there are gender differences among very low achievers, for example a relatively greater proportion of boys are found in the bottom 10 per cent. This may be of considerable significance and will be taken up again.

College completion rates

The study of completion rates in universities commissioned by the Higher Education Authority and carried out by the Educational Research Centre, gives an indication of the pattern of completion of males and females in various fields of study. It emerges that males are less likely to finish in arts and engineering, females less likely to complete courses in computers and social science and that there are no substantial differences in law and medicine. In other words, no clear-cut advantage emerges for either boys or girls - a pattern that is quite similar to that at the primary level.

What about the adult population?

There is some excellent information about the literacy skills and achievement of Irish adults, and specifically about differences between men and women. The International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) shows only minor differences between men and women - and these did not all run in the same direction. For example, as regards prose literacy, 13 per cent of men and 14 per cent of women were at the highest level, while just 24 per cent of men and 21 per cent of women scored at the lowest level of prose literacy. In contrast, when it comes to document literacy (forms, manuals, timetables, graphs), 13 per cent of men were at the highest level, while less than 10 per cent of women scored at this level. Corresponding to this, a higher proportion of women than men scored at the lowest level (27 per cent compared with 23.5 per cent).

Back to the Leaving Certificate

Given the evidence that primary school achievement is not strongly influenced by gender, and the evidence that there are only minimal differences in adulthood, why is it that girls do consistently better in the Leaving Certificate. Is it something about the examinations or is related to motivation and study? Are broader societal issues operating? The answer is probably to be found at all of these levels.

Janet Elwood's work for the National Council for Curriculum Assessment (NCCA) underlines an interesting point about performance in mathematics. She notes that a close reading of the questions suggests that they are quite straightforward and would favour students who are well-organised and who have learned the rules and the formulae. In other words, it might be that the format of an examination such as the Leaving Certificate favours students who are well prepared for that particular kind of examination.

It would be interesting to know about the study patterns of boys and girls and the extent to which they are focused on the specifics of the examination. Behind this is the broader question of the different pathways of growth to independence for boys and girls. It may simply be that the culture of young males is less in tune with the demands of the Leaving Certificate exam.

The rapid pace of social change in Ireland has resulted in a questioning of the certainties, especially those that were associated with the transition to adulthood. For a variety of reasons, boys are affected by these uncertainties to a greater extent than girls. Lesser involvement with school, inappropriate substance use and even a risk of self-harm are some of the consequences of the problems of the negotiation of adult roles.

What is clear is that patterns of gender differences can change rapidly. This is certainly the case with substance use. Two decade ago, more boys smoked, drank more and used illegal substances to a greater extent than girls. All the indications are that girls are catching up, rapidly. The present picture of the "underachievement" of boys may be only temporary.

. . .and finally

I started by making the point that the scale of gender differences in achievement is small compared with those associated with social background. It is especially appropriate therefore to mention the consequences of school failure for boys from disadvantaged backgrounds. The study which Mary Kett and I recently completed for the Department of Justice and Law Reform showed that nearly 50 per cent of the people in prison have very poor literacy skills (of whom about half were "illiterate" even by traditional definitions). Given that the majority of prisoners are young males, it would seem that poor school performance among boys is much more relevant at this end of the scale than is the case in the competition for "high points" courses.

Dr Mark Morgan is Head of Education at St Patrick's College of Education. He has been part of a team at the Educational Research Centre which has have carried out national studies on the achievement of primary and post-primary students