THE recently released results of the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) revealed a huge gap in the performance of females and males, the national average of females being more than 12 percentage points above that of the males in at least one of the five subjects.

While it is well known that girls at the age when GSAT is taken (10 to 12 years) are more mature than their male counterparts, sources in the Ministry of Education expressed concern about the gap in performance in the controversial exam.

According to the results released three Fridays ago, the national average in Communication Tasks — the only subject that tests writing ability unlike the other four subjects which are multiple-choice — is 72.5 per cent for females and 59.7 per cent for males.

The girls outperformed the boys in the other four subjects too — the mean scores being as follows:

* Mathematics — girls 61.1 per cent, boys 52.6 per cent

* Science — girls 63.3 per cent, boys 56 per cent

* social studies — girls 62 per cent, boys 53.2 per cent

* Language Arts — girls 63.2 per cent, boys 52.8 per cent

But an even more troubling revelation of how poorly many boys did in the GSAT is the mode in the exam, that is the score that occurs most frequently.

The mode for the females in mathematics is 71.3 per cent, meaning more girls scored 71.3 than any other score. However, the mode for males in mathematics is a mere 28.8 per cent.

The trend is similar in the other subjects, except for communication tasks. The mode in the other subjects are as follows.

* Science — girls 77.6, boys 29.3

* Social Studies — girls 77.2, boys 27.8

* Language Arts — girls 78.8, boys 30

* Communication task – girls 83.3, boys 75

The scores indicate that the competition to win a space in a preferred school is much stiffer among females than males, because so many males are doing poorly in the GSAT.

The median scores by gender, that is the middle score when the scores are placed in order from the least to the greatest, tell a similar story: the girls are way ahead of the boys.

* Mathematics — girls 61.3, boys 48.8

* Science — girls 65.5, boys 55.2

* Social Studies — girls 63.3, boys 53.2

* Language Arts — girls 66.3, boys 50

* Communication Tasks — girls 75, boys 66.7

Commenting on the differing performance of the genders, principal of the St Catherine-based Willodene Group of Schools Basil Tabannor said at age 11 when the GSAT is done, girls tend to be more mature and focused on academics than boys.

“Looking at my students’ performance, it is a challenge to get the boys to focus on the books; they are not as mentally committed to their work as the girls are. The boys tend to have more social pressures to focus on sports and other things. Also, there has been a change in our culture in that many of the role models that boys have are not persons who did particularly well in academics,” he said.

Tabannor, a former president of the Jamaica Independent Schools Association, also said the teaching styles and the assessment in schools tend to favour girls over boys.

However, he noted that many boys mature during their high school years, in time to sit their major exams in fifth form.

“At age 16 when maturity chips in, if the boys have a good home setting and are not overrun by the popular culture, they catch up with the girls and do well in their CSEC (Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate) exams,” Tabannor said.