Jim Huylebroek / Save The Children

Girls are now performing the same as boys in mathematics

Girls are outperforming boys in reading across all education levels and country income groups, according to our new GEM 2022 Gender Report released this morning. Further, girls in middle- and high-income countries do better than boys in science in secondary school.

In mathematics, a small gender gap favouring boys in early grades gradually disappears

Female–male gap in share of students achieving minimum proficiency level in mathematics, 2019

a. Up to grade 4

b. Above grade 4

Source: GEM Report team estimates based on the 2019 rounds of the LLECE, PASEC, SEA-PLM and TIMSS surveys.

An annual gender report published since 2011, this year’s publication – Deepening the debate on those still left behindanalysed data from 120 countries in primary and secondary education to offer a global picture. The analysis covers countries at all income levels on gender gaps in learning outcomes. It pools results from the Latin American Laboratory for Assessment of the Quality of Education (LLECE), the Programme d’Analyse des Systèmes Educatifs de la CONFEMEN  (PASEC), the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) surveys. It calls for us to think harder about gender inequality and the barriers that hold girls back from realising their potential.

While boys continue to perform better than girls in mathematics in the early years, this advantage gradually disappears as they progress in school. In some countries, the gap is reversed. For example, by grade 8, the gap is in favour of girls in mathematics by 3 points in Cambodia, by 1.7 points in Congo, by 7 points in Malaysia and by 1.4 points in the Philippines.

However, biases and stereotypes are still likely to affect learning outcomes. Even though girls catch up in mathematics in upper primary and secondary education, boys are far more likely to be overrepresented among the highest performers in mathematics in all countries.

Despite this advantage in science, girls are still less likely to opt for scientific careers, indicating that gender biases could still be obstacles to the pursuit of further education in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Further, when girls perform well in mathematics and science, they perform even better in reading. This may be another reason why girls are less likely to opt for STEM careers.

Girls enjoy a significant advantage over boys in science in secondary school

Female–male gap in percentage of students achieving minimum proficiency level in science, up to grade 4 and above grade 4, 2019

Source: GEM Report team estimates based on the 2019 rounds of the LLECE, PASEC, SEA-PLM and TIMSS surveys.

More girls achieve minimum proficiency in reading than boys. The largest gap in primary education is in Saudi Arabia, where 77% of girls but only 51% of boys in grade 4 achieve minimum proficiency in reading. In Thailand, girls outperform boys in reading by 18 points and in the Dominican Republic by 11 points and in Morocco by 10 points. Even in countries where girls and boys are at the same level in reading in the early grades, such as for example in Lithuania and Norway, the gap in favour of girls rises to roughly 15 percentage points by age 15.

More girls than boys achieve minimum proficiency in reading and the gap increases with age

Female–male gap in share of students achieving minimum proficiency level in reading, 2016–19

a. Up to grade 4

b. Above grade 4
Source: GEM Report team estimates based on the 2019 rounds of the LLECE, PASEC and SEA-PLM surveys, the 2016 PIRLS and the 2018 PISA.

Most of these data have been released in the last 18 months but refer to the situation just before the pandemic struck. We know that learning outcomes were severely affected in those countries that closed schools for long periods and were unable to offer remote learning opportunities to the majority of their students. Comparable learning assessments capturing the situation post-COVID will not start being published for another year and even then mainly for relatively wealthier countries that offered learning continuity. It will take some time before we can have a truly global picture on the long-term impact of the pandemic, including its gender impact.

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