Boys lagging behind girls in GCSE performances in the past 30 years and lack of national focus by the government caused academics and campaigners to clamor for the UK government to act in eliminating the current gender inequality in GCSE performance.
A trend which started 30 years ago is causing concern about the neglect of boys’ school performances. Currently, girls are 14 percent more likely to pass English and Math tests than boys with girls passing at a rate of 54 percent, whereas only 56 percent of boys are able to pass these tests.
Campaigners and academics have accused of refusing to address this issue, even though they know it exists. The lack of national focus on this issue only means that this disparity will continue, and if not addressed, it will become a major crisis.
Data shows boys lagging behind girls in GCSE performances
The available data showed that between 1989 and 1999, the disparity in the performance of GCSE more than doubled with girls moving ahead from 4 percent in 1989 to 9 percent in 1999.
The gap was at the lowest in 2009, where researchers found that the gap had decreased to 7 percent. This would, however, change fast within the next decade, where the boys lagging behind girls in GCSE performance has increased to a 14 percent gap.
If the current gap widens at the same rate as it did in the last decade, it is estimated that the gap will surpass that between the rich and the poor in the UK. Mary Curnock Cook, former head of university and college admissions services, had already warned,
On current trends, a girl born today will be 75% more likely to go to university than her male peers, By then, the gap between women and men will be larger than the gap between rich and poor.
Efforts, therefore, have to be made to address this inequality, according to academics and campaigners. They urged the government to focus on service delivery and increase the effort of eradicating such a disparity.
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