GIRLS HAVE again outperformed boys at most Leaving Cert subjects, a gender analysis of this year’s examination results shows.
At higher level, girls even outperformed boys in subjects traditionally associated with males, such as physics, agricultural science and construction studies.
Girls performed better in higher level Irish, English, history, geography, French, German, art and a host of other subjects.
One of the few areas where boys performed better was in higher level maths. Some 8.7 per cent of boys sitting the subject got an A1 and 7.4 per cent an A2, compared with 5.7 per cent and 6.5 per cent for girls respectively. There was, however, a slightly higher failure rate among boys in the subject.
A slightly higher percentage of boys also got honours in higher level applied maths (75.6 per cent versus 75.4 per cent for girls), but a greater proportion of boys also failed this subject at higher level.
At higher level, boys fared better than girls in a minority of subjects such as engineering, economics and religious education.
At ordinary level, boys outperformed girls in subjects including construction studies, business, economics, technology and Japanese.
The gender gap was more noticeable at ordinary level, where some 2.6 per cent of girls failed Irish, compared with 7.4 per cent of boys. Some 4.4 per cent of boys failed English, compared with 2.5 per cent of girls.
Just over 13 per cent of girls failed chemistry, compared with almost 24 per cent of boys.
In ordinary level maths, 11.8 per cent of boys failed, compared with 7.8 per cent of girls.
Of the core subjects at higher level, girls were most likely to get honours in Irish (82.5 per cent) and were more likely to fail maths and history (3.2 per cent for both subjects).
Outside the core subjects, girls had high failure rates in science subjects such as chemistry (7 per cent) and combined physics and chemistry ( 11.7 per cent).
Boys doing higher level were more likely to get honours in maths (77.2 per cent). They were more likely to fail higher level subjects such as chemistry (9.4 per cent) and biology (9.8 per cent).
Overall, the core subject with the highest percentage of honours was higher level Irish, where 81 per cent of students took honours.
Some 77.7 per cent of higher level maths students received honours, while 76.6 per cent of higher level English students did.
Outside the core subjects, the percentage of honours was highest among languages such as Russian (97.7 per cent) and Polish (95.8 per cent), but the numbers taking these subjects were small.
Higher level subjects with high failure rates included combined physics and chemistry (15.6 per cent), classical studies (13.9 per cent), biology (9.2 per cent) and chemistry (8.1 per cent)
The State Examinations Commission has said that 47 results of individual Leaving Certificate subjects have been withheld.
Results are withheld if a candidate attempts to gain advantage in the examination by contravening the regulations. Last year, 52 results were withheld.
The subjects affected this year include Irish, history, geography, classical studies, French, art, physics, biology, accounting, business and home economics.
Students can appeal the decision to withhold results.
The commission said a further 67 results were not being released without prejudice, “pending further communication with the schools and candidates concerned”.
