Amid the celebrations by students getting their A-level and GCSE results this week, it almost passed without notice that girls had stormed the last bastion of male academic attainment by capturing more top grades in maths than boys in both qualifications.
The twin triumph confirms what has long been known among educationists: in formal learning females outperform males at every level and every age group, from the early years through to Sats, GCSEs, A-levels, university admissions and degree classifications. It happens not only in the UK but in every developed country, with few exceptions.
Does it mean, as one commentator has suggested, that girls are simply more clever? No, according to academics who study schools and assessment. The answer is a more complicated web of attitudes and social factors that explain why boys often do better in maths and related subjects such as physics than in other subjects.
“It takes more than just being smart, for want of a better word, to do well in school,” said Jake Anders, the deputy director of University College London’s centre for…
