Girls outperformed boys across the board in the reading assessment – by 39 points on average. That’s the equivalent of more than half a year of schooling, according to PISA. On average across OECD countries only, boys outperform girls in mathematics, but by only 12 points.
Differences between the genders in science are small. While much attention has been focused on female underachievement in the past, it is shifting now to male underachievement in reading, according to PISA.