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Girls perform better in single-sex schools while boys' academic results suffer in all-boys schools, a University of Hong Kong study has revealed.

Based on a sample of 45,000 secondary school pupils who took the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination, the study by Dr Wong Kam-cheung also found that girls outperformed boys in most subjects whether at co-educational or single-sex schools.

'Girls in the science stream perform much better in single-sex schools,' said Dr Wong, of the Department of Education. 'And boys in the arts stream perform particularly badly in single-sex schools.'

Dr Wong speculated that the poor performance of boys in the arts stream in single-sex schools could be due to gender stereotyping that meant only boys who performed poorly overall chose the arts stream.

The study found that girls' scores in the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination and the secondary school places allocation test had improved considerably over the past 10 to 20 years.

'This could be due to the inevitable historical development of equal access to learning for girls,' he said. 'It could also have to do with the methods of assessment - do they favour girls?'

Dr Wong was speaking at an Equal Opportunities Commission conference on gender differences in learning.

Commission chairwoman Anna Wu Hung-yuk said the discrepancy could be partly explained by peer pressure against boys who studied hard.

The Assistant Director of Education, Lee Kwok-sung, also spoke on the new system for secondary school place allocations, introduced after the old system was found by a judicial review last June to practise sex discrimination. 'We need to tie in the concept of multiple intelligences and look at each individual as a whole person,' he said. 'Many schools have started to look at performance in interviews, ability to express themselves, creativity, and use multi-means of assessment.'

Professor Tony Gallagher, an expert on gender and education from Queen's University, Belfast, called for equal opportunities issues to be built into training for all teachers to make them more aware of the consequences of their expectations and assessments of students.

ravina@scmp.com



Girls beat boys - and do best in single-sex classes