Girls’ school skills suffered most during lockdowns

GIRLS’ reading and maths skills were hit harder by the pandemic than boys’, a new report has found.

Boys have narrowed the gap with girls in reading ability since lockdown, while also pulling further ahead in primary school maths.

The Education Policy Institute analysed the results of more than six million reading and maths tests between the age of seven and 14 in 2022-23 and compared them to the previous five years.

It found that in primary reading, boys are now 3.1 months behind girls, compared to 4.1 months prior to Covid.

In secondary reading, outcomes for girls fell while boys’ results were largely the same, narrowing girls’ lead by 1.2 months to 4.4 months.

Girls have fallen a further two months behind boys in maths at primary school, putting the gender gap at 2.9 months in favour of boys.

Meanwhile, in secondary maths, boys have caught up with girls, and are now 0.3 months behind their female classmates, compared with 3.6 months prior to the pandemic.

Jon Andrews, author of the Education Policy Institute report, said: “We cannot tell from this analysis why it is that girls appear to have been more affected by the pandemic.

“However, we do know from other studies that the pandemic had a greater impact on girls’ wellbeing, which in turn is likely to have had an effect on educational performance.”

Research published in The Lancet last year suggested that lockdowns had fuelled a 42 per cent surge in eating disorders among teenage girls.

Prof Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham, said: “This is purely observational, but it seems girls are much more dependent on company than boys, because when I encounter them, the girls are chatting in small groups.

“Boys are much more inclined to play computer games or communicate via the various media, and so I wonder if the effect of the pandemic on the social life of the pupils is reflected in their performance in these tests.”