In a repeat of the now familiar pattern, girls are continuing to outperform boys in almost all Leaving Cert subjects.
This year's exam results show girls maintaining their lead - even in supposed male bastions like maths and the sciences.
Grade breakdown at higher level showed girls attaining 5,153 A1s in contrast to the 4,357 achieved by boys. Boys had a higher A rate in maths and chemistry but overall, girls got 12,804 As while boys managed a total of 9,757.
Given the Government's emphasis on the importance of science, engineering and technology for Ireland's future, failure rates at ordinary level are worrying.
This year almost 13 per cent of boys who sat the ordinary level maths paper failed. Science subjects are also posing difficulties with almost one-fifth of boys failing to pass ordinary level chemistry.
Ten per cent failed the ordinary level physics paper while 16 per cent did not pass biology. In physics and chemistry, almost 26 per cent of boys failed the ordinary level paper.
The situation at higher level is also grim with 9 per cent of boys failing to pass the biology exam and 8 per cent failing physics.
The gap between girls and boys in higher-level maths is similar to last year although the proportion of students receiving an honour has fallen slightly.
Physics and chemistry presented one of the biggest differentials with girls achieving almost 14 per cent more honours than boys at higher level. At the other end, boys beat girls by more than 15 per cent in agricultural economics. Both subjects are minor ones, however.
Boys dominated Italian, construction studies, engineering, agricultural economics, Portuguese and Latin at higher level. But girls won out in every other area, including the traditional male strongholds of maths, applied maths, physics and technical drawing. In music, the proportion of honours was the same for girls and boys.
According to Muiris O'Connor, author of Sé Sí: Gender in Irish Education, this gender gap is most pronounced in second-level education and it has been growing steadily.