The Male Disadvantage in Educational Achievement and Attainment - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The Male Disadvantage

in Educational Achievement and Attainment

Information meeting for Permanent Delegations to UNESCO 20 May 2019, UNESCO Headquarters, Paris

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

Education for All (EFA) Goals

Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality.

National Commission on Gender Equality in Education

Report submitted in February 2019. An English translation of the report is forthcoming: https://nettsteder.regjeringen.no/stoltenbergutvalget/

Commission Mandate

All pupils have equal right to quality learning in school EVIDENCE Building evidence on causes of the gender gap in education POLICY and interventions Offer local and national authorities knowledge to inform their choices of efficient policies and interventions to prevent unfavourable gender gaps in educational achievement

Gender gaps in the education system and lifecourse outcomes

Long term trends in the gender gap in tertiary attainment

• 15
• 10
• 5

5 10 15 Cohort birth period OECD average Netherlands Switzerland United States Norway % point dif. Source: Barro and Lee, 2013. OECD report Figure 2.1.

Gender gap (female - male)

The gender gap in high income/emerging countries

Percentage of women among recently graduated bachelor students, 2015

Source: OECD Education Database, 2018

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Proportions of women and men in Norway with higher

• education. Age 30-39. 1970-2016

Statistics Norway 2018 Men Women

Life expectancy at different levels of educational attainment at age 30, by gender, 2009-2015, in Norway

70 72 74 76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90

Men Women Men Women Men Women Primary and Lower Secondary Education Upper Secondary Education Tertiary Education

Source: Norwegian Institute of Public Health (2016)

Proportion of men and women without children at age 45 in Norway

Source: Statistics Norway 2018

Girls do better in all subjects in school except physical education in Norway

Gender gaps in final marks and examination marks in 10th grade (examination form in parentheses), 2017. Source: Statistics Norway, StatBank

• 0,3
• 0,2
• 0,1

0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,6 0,7 0,8

Gender gap (girsl-boys) Gender gap final marks Gender gap examination marks

In Norway, girls do better than boys across the whole GPA distribution

GPA distribution in 10th grade (lower secondary education) by gender,

• 2018. Source: Requested from the Norwegian Directorate for Education and

Training, 2018

Boys Girls

Number of students Average school points

The gender gap is easiest to spot in the upper and lower parts of the GPA distribution

GPA distribution in 10th grade (lower secondary education) by gender, 2018. Source: Requested from the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training, 2018 Boys Girls

Number of students Average school points

0,0 10,0 20,0 30,0 40,0 50,0 60,0

Mandatory education or no education Upper secondary education Tertiary education, 4 years or less Tertiary education, more than 4 years Average school points

Parents' education level Boys Girls

GPA score by gender and parents' education level, 2018. Source: Statistics Norway, StatBank

In Norway, the gender gap in GPA score persists across parents' educational levels

4,0 4,6 4,5 4,3

Causal factors contributing to the gender gap in education

Not one, but two questions:

• 1. Why do we see a reversal of the gender

gap in educational attainment in favour

• f women since the 1970s?
• 2. Why is there a gender gap in educational

achievement in disfavour of boys, dating back as long as we have data?

1) Why gender gap in educational attainment

PERHAPS:

• Equal opportunities
• Career expectations
• Local labour market
• Economic returns to education
• Signaling value of higher education

2) Why gender gap in educational achievement

Teacher-pupil-interaction

 Teacher gender – NO  Teacher evaluated tests – PERHAPS, but only explains a small fraction of the gender gap

Male share of new entrants in tertiary education is lower in countries where teacher assessments are more common

ARG AUT BEL CHL COL CZE DNK FIN DEU HUN ISL ISR ITA JPN LTU LUX MEX NLD NZL NOR POL PRT RUS SVK SVN ESP SWE CHE TUR R² = 0,3247

40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Share of males among new entrants in tertiary education Sources: Adapted from OECD, PISA 2015 database and (OECD, 2017) “Education at a Glance”.

2) Why gender gap in educational achievement, cont.

Gender differences in development

 Self-regulation and social skills  Cognitive development in puberty  Cognitive profile and language development

At age 15, girls perform better in reading than boys in all countries depicted

• 0,9
• 0,7
• 0,5
• 0,3
• 0,1

0,1 0,3 0,5

Girls Boys Source: OECD, PISA (2015)

Reading skills of boys and girls improve – gender gap persists

Reading skills in 4th grade by gender, PIRLS. Source: Borgonovi (2018)

Girls Boys

Recommendations by the Commission

Guiding principles

The policy measures shall

• Improve boys' performance, not impair girls' performance
• Help reducing the socio-economic gap in performance
• Target both boys and girls, men and women
• Contribute to an inclusive learning environment
• Be evidence-based

Four main areas of education policy

1) Early intervention and adapted education

e.g. flexible school starting age

2) Content and structure in primary and lower secondary

education

e.g. different weighting of final and examination marks

3) Transitions in the educational pathway

e.g. the right to apprenticeships for pupils in TVET programs

4) Evidence system for kindergarten, primary and

secondary education

e.g. develop a national course database for education

Conclusions

• The gender gap is a social grand challenge requiring

policies and interventions

• The evidence is too weak to conclude on the causes of the

gender gap

• There are almost no country examples of policies and

interventions that are efficient to prevent or mitigate the gender gap - this calls for cooperation between countries

• Achieving gender equality in education for both genders

is possible

Thank you