Boys smart, girls smarter?
By Ruwanthi Herat Gunaratne
Welcome to the modern world, where there's no greater daily battle than
that between the sexes. But what of education? For since the dawn of civilization,
it was considered that the males of the species were academically superior
and in many societies, it was traditionally the males who were provided
with that much sought after education. Surprise, surprise - now the tables
have turned!
A survey conducted by the The Times of London newspaper on the AS Level
Examination conducted in May this year highlighted the fact that the girls¡
lead over boys in public examinations has widened drastically during the
past few years. That was in the U.K. Do the girls in our country too beat
the  boys
when it comes to examination results? And why is this so?
Mrs. H. Mahawatte, an A/L teacher at Pannipitiya Dharmapala Maha Vidyalaya
believes that girls do fare better at their studies because they are more
conscientious. 'They are more aware of the importance of the examination
- so I find that they are more interested in the subject and go to more
trouble to do their own background work than the boys.'
As a result of this the pass percentage of girls at the A/L examination
is far ahead of that of the boys when considering streams like Commerce,
Arts and Biological Science. But in the case of Math-related subjects such
as Physics, Combined and Advanced Mathematics the boys still do top their
classes.
'There's one great change that the boys undergo once in the A/L classes,
since together with studying for the A/L the majority of them get involved
with other school activities. They then lag behind in their studies and
start going for more and more private tuition classes. It's not wrong to
do so but we find that these students still do not put their best foot
forward. The girls on the other hand, somehow learn to balance both their
schoolwork and extracurricular activities which is why their pass rate
is better,'said Mr. Piyasena, Principal of Kottawa Ananda Vidyalaya.
The situation is almost the same in International Schools. Said Mr.
David Sanders, Principal of Colombo International School, 'Through the
years I've noticed that the girls do fare better at the examinations. It's
just that they work harder and are more careful with their studies than
the boys. I believe that this is mainly due to the fact that the boys are
allowed more freedom than the girls in Sri Lanka - so the girls are likely
to spend more time and energy on their studies.'
But at Stafford International School, the norm has changed this year,
'There's really no hard and fast rule as to which pass rate is higher,
but this year the boys pass rate is higher than that of the girls and that
factor is a little surprising,'laughed Mrs. N. Welikela, the school's principal.
Fine, if this is the situation how is one to explain boys getting the
best results year in and year out? 'Whatever said and done it all ultimately
lies on the fact that the student who sincerely wishes to get to the top
will do so regardless of gender,' said Mr. Sanders.
Sonali (19) who has just completed her local A/Ls and was a student
at a co - ed school feels that the girls are more likely to get worked
up during exams, they study in an orderly fashion and therefore get better
results. The boys in her opinion tend to take things as they come and worry
about the exams only a few days before. Moreover when the results prove
to be unsatisfactory, they tend to simply brush it off. 'Though they say
that though women have smaller brains we can boast of a greater number
of neurons - after all men smart, women smarter,'she concludes laughing.
So are the girls indeed smarter than the boys? Or is it just at exams
that they fare better? According to the Commissioner of Examinations Mr.
A.B.R.B. Amarakoon it all depends on the individual but as a majority the
girls do put in a lot more time and effort and therefore present a higher
pass percentage than the boys at public examinations.
Statistics sonfirm it
The statistics confirm it - the girls do fare better than the boys in
our country. But unlike in England where there has been a considerable
widening of the gap between the girls and the boys, the results of the
local A/L examination show that our local girls have somehow retained quite
a lead over the boys from 1994 to date.
A/L Examination conducted by the National Evaluation and Testing Center
(Sri Lanka)
A/L Examination 1999
Percentage of students who qualified for University Entrance
Male: 37.75% Female: 47.48%
Percentage of students who passed all subjects offered
Male: 43.88% Female: 51.22%
Percentage of students who failed all four subjects
Male: 12.2% Female: 5.51%
A/L Examination 2000
Percentage of Students who qualified for University Entrance
Male: 42.7% Female: 55.2%
Percentage of students who passed all subjects offered
Four Subjects
Male: 51.9% Female: 56.6%
Three Subjects
Male: 47.1% Female: 60.9%
Percentage of students who failed all subjects offered
Four Subjects
Male: 6.5% Female: 3.6%
Three Subjects
Male: 11.9% Female: 5.2%
Statistics courtesy of Mr. A. M. R. B. Amarakoon, The Commissioner General
of Examinations, Isurupaya, Pelawatte, Battaramulla. |
