UK News 23-08-2001 GCSE Results: Boys Close Gap On Girls who: Schoolgirls what: Lead boys in GCSE results once again when: Today snippet: "Boys have narrowed the gap with girls at GCSE level in the results published today and pass rates have risen again," reports The Guardian. "Girls again took the lion`s share of high grades," says The Times, "5.8 per cent of their entries reaching A, compared with 4 per cent of boys` entries. But the improvement by boys in the grades equating to the old O level was 0.3 percentage points better than that of girls." "We may be seeing the first signs that the lad culture which has pervaded for far too long is on the wane," comments David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers. Since the last year of O-levels in 1987 there has been a 43 percent rise in A-C grades for both sexes, says The Telegraph, "while the proportion awarded the top grades, A* and A, has shot up by 137 per cent." Although for the majority of the newspapers, this is a "good news" story, The Guardian is not so sure, pointing out that "headteachers and business leaders voiced their anxiety about the persistent underachievement in key subjects" because roughly half of all students failed to manage a grade C or better in maths, English and science. [... more]

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