Massey University literacy expert Professor Tim Nicholson said girls outperformed boys in literacy in every developed country by an average of one year's learning. Photo: FileThe gap between girls' and boys' achievement in the classroom is widening further. The new data shows a gap between girls and boys of 16 percentage points in writing, the widest gap since national standards were introduced in 2010. The proportion of girls achieving the writing standards was unchanged at 79.4%, but boys reaching the standards fell slightly from 63.9% in 2015 to 63.4% in 2016. Boys also lag behind in reading, with 73.6% achieving standards compared with 82.1% of girls - both down 0.3% from 2015.

Source: Otago Daily Times August 18, 2017 23:03 UTC