Matric girls whiz past boys in maths, science

Girls are outperforming boys in maths and science, bucking the stereotype that they shine in the languages only.

With public school pupils about to find out on Tuesday how they fared in the matric exams, education experts have predicted that the girls are likely to produce better results in maths and science than their male counterparts.

But they warned that the overall pass rate in these subjects was likely to be worse than last year's, mainly because of changes to the curriculum and the shortage of skilled maths and science teachers.

Private school results released on Wednesday demonstrated the new trend .

St Mary's Diocesan School for Girls in Kloof, Durban, emerged as the top private school in the country, with 39 distinctions (42% of the maths cohort) in maths, four in advanced maths and 17 in physical science. The school achieved 357 distinctions overall, an average of about four per pupil.

The changing trend is propped up by the latest analysis by the American Psychological Association, which found that girls did better than boys in schools around the world, including in maths and science.

Despite "contrary wisdom that girls start to dumb down" at senior primary level, researchers found that their maths and science skills began to emerge at that age.

"The generalised nature of the female advantage in school marks contradicts the popular stereotypes that females excel in language whereas males excel in maths and science," the researchers wrote.

They believed that girls' concentration levels tended to be better than those of boys and that parents expected girls to perform poorly and pushed them harder.

Not finding the compulsory seven subjects enough of a challenge, Lauren Edwards, 18, from St Peters College, Sunninghill, Johannesburg, ambitiously took an extra three subjects in Grade 11 and ended up with 10 distinctions when the IEB results were released earlier this week. She got 97% for maths and 90% for physical science.

And she didn't spend the entire year with her nose in her books. "I participated in all the sports. You can't focus all your attention on the academics, you'll get bored," she said.

Edwards captained the school's swimming and tennis teams. She intends pursuing a degree in actuarial sciences this year, but is still "waiting for a sign" to help her decide between the University of Cape Town and Wits University.

The Zenex Foundation, a South African maths, science and languages donor body, said a review of the annual national assessment tests of 2012 showed that girls outperformed boys in literacy and maths.

"This trend is evident with national senior certificate results," said the foundation's CEO Gail Campbell.

"Various studies show that boys perform better than girls in maths and science in East African countries. But South Africa has made great strides in relation to participation - of girls taking maths - and the quality of passes," Campbell said.

The foundation, which has pumped millions into developing maths and science programmes, predicted that with the inclusion of Euclidean geometry and probability in the maths curriculum and the lack of skilled maths and science teachers at high school level, the results in these subjects were likely to stay the same or "drop slightly to accommodate these realities".

"The annual national assessment tests have shown that, by Grade 9, pupils have serious backlogs in mathematical knowledge," said Campbell.

St Mary's DSG Kloof principal Jonathan Manley said pupils of all-girl schools usually matched or trumped their male counterparts. "Research shows that girls in a co-ed environment tend to fall into the stereotype, where they believe that boys are better than them.

"Research has shown that girls can do as well as boys in maths and science, but when they are competing in a mixed environment they don't perform as well."

St Mary's matriculant Precious Hlatswayo, 18, who achieved distinctions in maths, accounting and drama, said girls were no longer prepared to be held back by stereotypes.

"Anybody can perform well in these subjects, it's just a matter of working really hard. I didn't expect to get an A in maths- because it was really difficult. I'm really pleased," she said.

She has been provisionally accepted at the University of Cape Town to study accountancy.

govendersu@sundaytimes.co.za, bornmanj@sundaytimes.co.za