The United Kingdom and United States had no significant difference in educational achievement between the two sexes, the study showed.
Dr Gijsbert Stoet, of the University of Glasgow, who led the study, said: “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.”
David Geary, Professor of Psychology at the University of Missouri, said: “As well as being stronger in STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] subjects, the PISA data show that a greater percentage of girls have proportionally better reading achievement compared with mathematics achievement, with boys showing the opposite pattern.
“The tilt in skills influences later choice of college major and occupation so those who are better at language related skills than maths tend towards language-based professions, such as law instead of computer science, even women with very high maths skills.
“The sex differences we see in STEM industries today is related in part to this tilt.”
Article Appeared @http://blackstarjournal.org/?p=4591