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Boys suffer as teachers inflate girls' school grades

Louis Roper
Louis Roper - [email protected]
Boys suffer as teachers inflate girls' school grades

The long-held suspicion of schoolboys the world over may be correct: girls are the teachers' favourites when it comes to doling out grades at the end of the school year.

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That, at least, is the conclusion of a Swedish study which has shown that boys are getting lower grades at the end of the ninth grade - the last year of compulsory schooling - despite doing just as well in the national exams.

Boys' final grades in English, mathematics and Swedish are clearly lower than those of girls, compared to their results in the national tests, reported Dagens Nyheter.

Maria Nycander, the researcher at Uppsala University who has examined eight years of results, says that boys could turn their backs on education if the issue is not addressed.

"This shows beyond any doubt that boys are being treated unfairly," Nycander told DN.

"A large part of the differences between boys and girls is due to the unfair awarding of grades."

According to Nycander's study, boys and girls have more or less the same result in the national mathematics tests. In Swedish and English, girls perform better - but their final grades are disproportionately higher.

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