Part-time work by male students is having a major detrimental impact on their performance in the Leaving Cert, according to the teachers' union ASTI. It has renewed calls for employers to avoid employing exam students.
Some 60 per cent of Leaving Cert students now work part-time, the majority of whom are boys, according to ASTI general secretary John White.
In addition, male students who work part-time are more likely to work longer hours and to engage in weekday work.
Mr White was commenting on statistics which show girls outperforming boys in every major Leaving Cert subject this year and gaining over 6,000 more A1s and A2s at honours and ordinary level than their male counterparts.
Of particular concern is the fact that almost 14 per cent of boys taking ordinary-level maths failed the subject, making entry to a third-level course very difficult.
While noting that the pattern of girls out-performing boys in examinations is an international phenomenon, Mr White said the perception that boys may be failing to reach their academic potential was a cause for concern.
"Part-time work consumes a young person's time and energy and can diminish concentration and performance during school time.
"This can have potentially devastating effects on performance in the Leaving Certificate examination."
He appealed to parents and students to consider the effects of part-time work during an examination year.
Other factors such as class size, the level of one-to-one interaction between students and their teachers and access to guidance counsellors from an early stage, were also highlighted by the ASTI as factors affecting the educational performance of boys.
Addressing such issues, however, would require increased second-level funding, according to Mr White.
"There is a need for comprehensive research into the content and structure of exams and examination papers in order to determine barriers to achievement for boys."
However, he said that despite the worrying statistics regarding boys' under-performance, it was important to recognise that an OECD PISA study on the academic performance of 15-year-old students showed Irish students performing remarkably well in comparison with their international counterparts.