Boys have outperformed girls at A-level for the second consecutive year, with 28.9% of male entries achieving A or A* grades compared with 28% for girls – the widest gap on record. The surge is largely attributed to boys’ dominance in STEM subjects, with overall top grades reaching their highest level since the pandemic. The Telegraph has the story:
Boys have widened their lead over girls in achieving A* and A grades at A-level.
Male students outperformed girls for the second year in a row, after trailing for several years, and now lead by a wider gap than ever.
They were ahead by 0.9 percentage points in this year’s results, with 28.9% of boys’ entries awarded A or A* compared with 28% for girls’. Their previous record high lead over girls was 0.5 percentage points in 2017.
This year, more boys have achieved top grades than at any time excluding the pandemic years.
The surge is thought to have been driven by boys taking Stem subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths), which typically yield better grades.
Across the board, pupils opening their results on Thursday morning saw their share of A*s and As climb to the highest on record excluding the pandemic, despite efforts to curb grade inflation.
The results boosted the number of British 18-year-olds accepted by high-ranking universities by more than 5% to a record level, according to Ucas, the admissions service.
After the introduction of modular A-levels in 2000, girls led boys in achieving A* or A grades for the first 16 years, opening up a gap of nearly 3 percentage points at their peak in 2003.
Boys briefly took the lead in 2017 and 2018 before girls surged ahead during the pandemic, leading by nearly 5 percentage points in 2021.
Boys narrowly edged ahead last year, with a gap of 0.5 percentage points, as 28.4% achieved top grades compared with 28.2% of girls.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: The fall in girls’ top A-level grades linked to mental health crisis, reports the Telegraph.
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The fall in girls’ top A-level grades linked to mental health crisis, reports the Telegraph.
How can they tell which are the boys and which are the girls? I do hope they’re not promoting some sort of ‘gender’ stereotyping.
Does it indeed stand to reason? It may be an interesting theory for which you have some sort of idea of how it may affect boys and girls differently but I see no evidence of reasoning in the assertion.
Well yes – how do we know that it’s not the increasing percentage of girls identifying as boys who are boosting the latter’s A-level results?
So, just another 2.5% and the majority of girls 17-19 will have a ‘probable or possible mental health disorder’. How long before it’s unusual not to have mental health problems?
If about half of girls and almost a third of boys (17-19) have mental health problems they are demonstrating a normal reaction to their circumstances. It’s the circumstances that need to be addressed.
Bullshit. It was the lockdown if anything. Also, that was in 2020/21 – what’s been done to improve their lot since?
Yes, I know she used to be called Johnny but she wants to be called Joanna from now on. Yes, of course that’s normal. How could you ask such a cruel question? Apologise to Johnny – I mean Jenny, er, Joanna – at once!
That picture: White privilege. All these White subjects where precision is required and there’s no room for a Global Majority perspective – all assessed with examinations where the student has to read and understand the question to score more points than someone else. Shouldn’t be allowed.
🙂