New figures have revealed stark gender gaps in pupils taking AS and A-level subjects including physics, computing and psychology.
Ofsted has today published the first single source of data showing the numbers and proportions of girls and boys progressing from Year 11 to AS-levels and from AS to A-level. (The full tables are below).
The figures show that only one in ten pupils taking computing at AS-level last year were girls, who made up just 707 of the 8,196 intake. The remaining 7,489 were boys.
Girls are also shunning physics. They made up just 8,951 of the 39,307 pupils taking the subject at AS-level. For every three girls taking AS physics there are 10 boys.
But the figures show a role reversal for subjects including sociology, psychology and art and design.
Only 9,613 of the 39,107 pupils who took sociology were boys. And in art and design boys made up only 9,838 of the 38,553 pupils at AS level.
Table 1: Details of subject take-up by gender based on AS examination entry data in 2013/14 (click to enlarge)
Table 2: Percentage of girls and boys who continued for AS to A2 for all major GCE subjects by entry number (click to enlarge)
I think “so what”? Isn’t the point of having a choice, having a choice?
The point is we want them to choose Physics because it can only be good all round.