In the now familiar pattern, girls have outperformed boys in virtually every Junior Certificate subject in this year's exam.
Of the 23 subjects at higher level, girls outscored boys in all but four subjects - Italian, woodwork, metalwork and environmental studies.
Among the main subjects the gender gap was very wide. A total of 13 per cent more girls secured honours in the English higher level paper and 10 per cent more secured honours in Irish.
The gap was just as striking across a range of other subjects. Some 12 per cent more girls achieved honours in higher level Latin. The gap in favour of girls in other higher level subjects included French (10 per cent), German (14 per cent), art (11 per cent) and Spanish (10 per cent).
There is also a huge gender gap in the numbers of girls securing grade A at honours level. Seven per cent more girl than boys achieved an A in English. In other subjects, the gap in the number of A grades included Irish (5 per cent), classical studies (10 per cent), art (13 per cent), and typewriting (13 per cent).
Boys achieved more A grades than girls in only a handful of subjects, including mathematics (0.8 per cent), woodwork (0.3 per cent), technical graphics (1.2 per cent) and environmental studies (6.6 per cent).
A similar gap is evident at ordinary level, where girls outscore boys in all but a few subjects.
More boys failed ordinary level papers. Six per cent more failed Irish, 7 per cent more failed French and 4 per cent more failed maths.
In reaction to the Junior Cert results, Labour Party spokeswoman on education, Jan O'Sullivan, said the high failure rates in many core ordinary-level subjects would lead to more teenagers dropping out of school prematurely.
She pointed to this week's Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report, which said spending on primary and secondary education had increased at only half the rate of economic growth.
"If the resources are not there to give all children a fair start in their education, should we be surprised at the high rates of early school leaving?"
She said the Government had failed to make education the priority it should be to maintain a successful economy. She also said it was shocking that despite economic growth, spending on education as a proportion of GDP had actually fallen.
Fine Gael's education spokeswoman Olwyn Enright called on the Government to "get its act together on science education", after the high failure rate at ordinary level.
"The Government has had three years to implement the key recommendations of the taskforce on the physical sciences, but to date it remains virtually untouched," she said. "How many times does the Government have to be reminded that science is key to our economic future?"
