Around the world, in virtually every country and region, we see a gap between results attained by boys and girls in school, with girls getting better results on average. Irrespective of social class, gender equality in the host nation, or any other social indicator, the gap exists. There are only three regions where this is not the case; Costa Rica, Columbia, and Himachal Pradesh. All of this was found in a joint investigation by Glasgow and Missouri universities’ Psychology departments.

While in general, girls did outperform boys, there was interestingly an area where this wasn’t the case, namely at the top level of performance; when you compare the results of the best performers of both genders, boys did outperform girls.

The individual who led the study, Dr Gijsbert Stoet, of the Univserity of Glasgow is quoted as saying “At the moment we see that, with the exception of high-achievers, boys have poorer educational outcomes than girls around the world, independent of social equality indicators.” “What’s more is that this gap in not reducing.” “If policy makers are seriously concerned about gender equality in education, this ought to be their top priority.” “That it is not, is probably fuelled by a lack of public understanding of the distribution of skills, which we have highlighted in this and previous studies.” “For example, listening to many news stories in the media, one can easily get the idea that girls around the world are falling behind boys, in particular in countries with known gender inequality.” “The reality is quite different in the many countries participating in Pisa, which many may find surprising.”

It is clear that the issue of male under-performance in education is a serious one, which is affecting their economic outlook around the world. Whether or not we’ll be able to deal with the issue is another matter, as whether or not governments around the world are likely to prioritise it is as well.