Girls are smarter, but boys do better in mathematics

The largest percentage of candidates who obtained Grade 1 overall in the majority of subjects in their MATSEC exams were females.  

But higher grades were also consistently obtained by males from Church schools who clearly outperform males in both state schools and independent schools. 

This emerges from a statistical report issued by MATSEC, which was compiled by Prof. Frank Ventura.

According to the report, male and female candidates from church schools outperform candidates from independent and state schools in nearly all subjects except for English Language, English Literature and Physical Education, where candidates from independent schools appear to have the upper hand. 

Males attending church schools fare particularly well in mathematics. 18% of boys attending church schools obtain the highest grade compared to just 0.4% of boys attending state schools and 10% of males attending independent schools. In general girls do not do as well as boys in mathematics. The report shows females in independent schools doing better than their counterparts in other sectors.

Females from church schools outperform all other categories in Maltese while females attending independent schools are the most likely to get the highest grade in English.

Males from state schools seem to be consistently outperformed by males from church and independent schools. The report also shows female candidates from state schools performing better than their male counterparts.

Females did much better than males in Business Studies, Design and Technology, Economics, English Literature, European Studies, French, Geography, German, Home Economics and Textiles and Design. 

The report shows that 42.3% of males born in 1998 and 55.5% of females born in 1998 obtained the necessary passes at the end of their secondary education that qualified them for entry into Form VI for further studies. According to the report this represented “a remarkable increase from last year’s SEC examinations”.

This table shows that more than half of the 16-year-olds were awarded certification with Grades 1 to 5 in the following basic subjects: English Language (64.4%), Maltese (64.1%), and Mathematics (63.1%), while 53.0% of the cohort obtained Grades 1 to 5 in Physics, 49.2% in Religious Knowledge and 41.2% in English Literature. 

87.7% (3,937 out of 4,488) of the children born in 1998 registered for SEC examinations. These are 84.4% of males (1,947 out of 2,308) and 91.3% of females (1,990 out of 2,180) registered for SEC examinations in 2104. The percentage of female applicants has been higher than that of males in all SEC examination sessions.

Majority opt for only one 

The reports show that most candidates register for only one science subject. 2,418 registered for one science subject, 481 for two science subjects and only 558 for three science subjects. Although similar numbers of males and females opted for Physics as their single science, most of the candidates who registered only for Biology were females. Chemistry is rarely taken as one’s only science subject. The largest category of candidates opting for two sciences registered for Biology and Physics. The majority of these candidates were females. 14.2% of candidates born in 1998 applied for the three sciences (13.1% of boys and 15.2% of girls). This show an increase from last year’s 12.5%.

Only 13 opt for three languages

With regard to foreign languages, most candidates registered for one foreign language. Italian remained the most popular option among these candidates. Among the candidates who registered for two foreign languages, Italian and French were by far the most popular. In comparison, there were very few candidates who opted for three foreign languages. All these trends existed last year. While 2,336 registered for one foreign language, 541 registered for two foreign languages and only 13 for three.