GENDER ANALYSIS:GIRLS HAVE again outperformed boys in most Leaving Certificate subjects, an analysis of this year's examination results shows.
Repeating their success last year, girls continued to perform better than boys in higher-level Irish, English, history, geography, French and German.
In subjects traditionally associated with males, such as physics, agricultural science and construction studies, females also scored better at higher level.
In honours maths, in which boys have traditionally performed better, girls have this year moved ahead with 3 per cent more girls achieving honours at higher level.
The failure rate of those who took the subject was 2 per cent for girls and twice that for boys.
Looking more closely at the trends, on the higher-level English paper, girls outperformed boys, with almost 5 per cent more girls attaining honours in the subject.
Almost 77 per cent of all those who took the subject at higher level got an honour, with just over 1 per cent failing the honours paper.
There were similar trends in honours Irish, with 84 per cent of those taking the paper at higher level achieving an A, B or C.
Just 1 per cent of those who sat honours Irish failed the paper.
In honours history, girls outperformed boys by 4 per cent, while in geography they streaked ahead by 6 per cent.
Latin was the only language in which boys outshone the girls at honours level, although it was by less than 1 per cent.
In European languages, girls who took higher German, Italian and Spanish were more likely to get honours, with 6 per cent more girls getting honours in Spanish.
In the sciences, while almost 2½ times as many boys as girls took physics at higher level, girls outperformed boys by 5 per cent.
In chemistry, more girls than boys took the higher paper and 3 per cent more got honours.
Failure rates in honours chemistry were up at 8 and 9 per cent for girls and boys respectively, among the highest of any Leaving Cert subject.
Failure rates in honours biology were similarly high among males and females, at 9 and 8 per cent respectively. In accounting, business and economics at higher level, girls scored better at honours level.
The biggest differential was in business, with 5 per cent more girls getting an honour.
More than twice as many girls as boys took music or art at higher level.
Three per cent more girls achieved an honour in music and 11 per cent more achieved an honour in art.
The only subjects in which boys did better than girls at higher level were Latin, applied maths and engineering.
In engineering, 11 per cent more boys than girls achieved honours.
