A recent survey of the knowledge and skills of 15 year olds in the 30 OECD countries consistently revealed some startling differences between the sexes in the areas of Science, Mathematics and Reading Performance.

Reading Performance

In all 30 OECD countries, girls gained higher results than boys in Reading Performance. The biggest difference was in Greece were girls attained marks 13% higher than boys. The OECD Reading Performance average score for girls was a significant 8.1% higher than their male counterparts. The biggest differential between the sexes was in Greece where girls scored results 13% higher than boys. The highest scores of all were attained by girls in Korea.

Mathematics Performance

The Mathematics Performance results were higher for boys than for girls in all but one of the OECD countries, namely Iceland where girls gained 0.9% higher marks than boys. As an average across the OECD, boys results were 2.3% higher compared to their female counterparts. The biggest differential between the sexes was in Austria where boys attained results 5% higher than girls. The highest marks of all were gained by boys in Finland.

Identifying Scientific Issues

In Identifying Scientific Issues girls gained higher results than boys in all OECD countries without exception. They performed on average 3.5% better than boys. The biggest differential between the sexes was in Greece where girls attained results 7% higher than boys. The highest marks of all were gained by girls in Finland.

Knowledge About Science

In the Knowledge About Science results, girls came out on top in every country except the United Kingdom where boys outscored girls by a very tight 0.002% margin. On average the marks for girls were 1.9% higher across the OECD. The highest marks of all were attained by girls in New Zealand.

Explaining Phenomena Scientifically, Earth & Space Systems and Physical Systems

In every OECD country boys outscored girls in each of these three areas of science by between 3.0% and 5.3%.

Now that we have this information and we know that boys and girls have different strengths and capabilities should we attempt to redress the balances? Or should the different sexes be encouraged to concentrate on the areas in which they are more likely to be skilled?

The results can be found in full here.