Girls outsmart boys in Hong Kong exams

About three-quarters of girls achieved passes in this year's Chinese language exams taken at 16 years of age compared to 58 per cent of boys. The same was true in the English exam for the Hong Kong Certificate of Education (CEE). Seventy per cent of girls and 58 per cent of boys gained a pass. The gender disparity was revealed in the Education Department's summary of A level and CEE results, the statistics from the Hong Kong Examinations Authority showed.

The summary - which reflects trends in other developed countries, the authority said - also showed that the majority of places at Hong Kong's top universities were going to women. The figures showed girls are not only performing better in arts subjects but are also catching up with boys in science, with more girls gaining grade C or above in math, biology and chemistry. However, the majority of A grades in science subjects still go to boys, who still dominate places at Hong Kong University of Science, where 57 per cent of this year's intake was male.

(dpa)