LONDON, United Kingdom — October 12, 2026 — England’s education system is facing an increasingly complicated gender divide. Although girls continue to outperform boys across important school attainment measures, new evidence indicates that their own academic progress has stalled or weakened in recent years.
The findings raise questions about how educational success should be measured and whether policymakers are paying enough attention to changes affecting girls.
A Bloomberg Opinion article published on October 12, titled “We Should Worry More About English Girls’ Education,” draws attention to the subject as researchers and government officials examine shifting educational outcomes.
Independent data from England’s Department for Education, the examinations regulator Ofqual and the Education Policy Institute show that the issue cannot be understood simply by comparing boys’ and girls’ latest grades.
Girls may still be ahead in many subjects, but maintaining a lead does not necessarily mean their educational outcomes are improving.
Girls Still Lead in Key School Results
Official 2026 government statistics show that girls continue to outperform boys in several measures of primary-school attainment.
At age 11, approximately 67% of girls reached the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics combined, compared with 60% of boys.
Girls also maintained an advantage in reading.
About 78% of girls achieved the expected reading standard, compared with 72% of boys.
Writing showed an even larger gap in girls’ favor.
These results demonstrate that boys continue to face significant educational disadvantages in several core areas.
However, the statistics also reveal that differences vary between subjects.
In mathematics, boys performed slightly better at the expected standard and held a larger advantage among the highest achievers.
At the higher mathematics standard, 32% of boys met the benchmark, compared with 22% of girls.
The findings challenge the assumption that one gender consistently performs better across every academic discipline.
Girls’ Academic Progress Has Stalled
The Education Policy Institute’s 2026 annual report identified a concerning trend beneath the headline attainment figures.
Although girls generally outperform boys in many subjects, their academic progress has shown signs of stagnation.
The institute reported that girls’ attainment had largely plateaued at the end of primary school.
It also found that girls’ results had declined slightly across official secondary-school performance measures in 2025.
Their average Attainment 8 score, which summarizes achievement across a set of GCSE qualifications, fell to its lowest level since the measure was introduced.
This is an important distinction.
A narrowing gender gap can occur because boys improve, girls fall behind their previous performance, or both trends happen together.
Consequently, a smaller difference between male and female results should not automatically be described as an overall improvement in education.
GCSE Gender Gap Narrows to Historic Low
England’s 2026 GCSE results added another dimension to the discussion.
Girls continued to achieve stronger results overall, but the gap between male and female candidates narrowed to its smallest level in decades.
Sky News reported in August that the difference in GCSE pass rates between boys and girls had fallen to its lowest level in 37 years.
However, the trend was not entirely positive.
The publication reported that girls’ pass rate had reached its lowest level since 2008, while boys recorded their strongest results since 2015.
The findings illustrate why changes in the gender gap must be interpreted carefully.
Boys’ improvement is encouraging.
But it should not obscure the possibility that girls are experiencing weaker academic outcomes compared with previous generations.
Education experts have suggested that the effects of the pandemic may still be influencing school performance.
The students taking GCSE examinations in 2026 experienced significant disruption during important years of their primary education.
Nevertheless, the evidence does not establish that pandemic disruption alone caused the changes in girls’ attainment.
Why Mathematics Deserves Greater Attention
Mathematics remains one area where the gender divide looks different from the overall academic picture.
Government data show that boys held a nine-percentage-point advantage over girls in achieving the higher standard in mathematics at age 11.
That difference was unchanged from the preceding year.
Subject selection at A-level also reveals substantial differences.
Ofqual’s 2026 results showed that female students accounted for approximately 36.8% of A-level mathematics candidates, compared with 63.1% for male students.
Economics also attracted a larger proportion of male candidates.
By contrast, female students represented roughly three-quarters of psychology candidates and nearly two-thirds of biology candidates.
These patterns matter because subject choices can influence access to university courses and careers.
Mathematics is particularly important for pathways into engineering, computing, economics and some scientific disciplines.
However, enrollment differences do not establish that girls are inherently less capable in mathematics.
Subject preferences can be shaped by educational experiences, confidence, career expectations, social influences and access to opportunities.
Understanding these factors is essential if policymakers want to widen participation.
Educational Disadvantage Goes Beyond Gender
The latest research also highlights the importance of family income and socioeconomic circumstances.
England’s Education Policy Institute found that educational disadvantage can affect students differently depending on ethnicity and other characteristics.
That means a national comparison between boys and girls may conceal larger disparities between students from different backgrounds.
For example, a disadvantaged girl in one community may face greater educational obstacles than a more affluent boy in another.
Similarly, boys from lower-income families can experience substantial attainment gaps that require targeted support.
A successful education strategy must therefore examine gender alongside poverty, geography, special educational needs and access to school resources.
Focusing exclusively on which gender is ahead risks overlooking the students who need the greatest help.
Declining Engagement Adds Another Concern
A separate report published by The Guardian on October 12 examined growing concerns about student disengagement.
The report discussed research suggesting that many children are becoming less connected to their education.
Writer and researcher Jenny Anderson argued that outdated approaches to learning, rather than digital devices alone, may contribute to students’ declining interest in school.
Technology and social media can complicate learning by competing for attention.
However, school engagement is also influenced by teaching methods, curriculum design, relationships with teachers and whether students believe their education is meaningful.
These concerns apply to both girls and boys.
They also show why examination results provide only one measure of educational success.
A student may achieve strong grades while experiencing stress, disengagement or uncertainty about future opportunities.
Conversely, weaker academic results may reflect barriers that require support rather than a lack of ability.
Why Policymakers Must Avoid a Gender Competition
Discussions about educational inequality often become framed as a competition between boys and girls.
But improving one group’s outcomes should not require neglecting the other.
Boys continue to underperform girls in several important measures, particularly literacy and writing.
Those gaps deserve serious policy attention.
At the same time, evidence of stagnation or decline among girls should not be dismissed simply because they remain ahead.
Both trends can be true.
An effective response would examine where students are losing ground, which teaching approaches work and how schools can provide better support.
It would also recognize that educational outcomes are influenced by multiple overlapping factors.
The central objective should be to improve learning opportunities and achievement for all students, not merely to narrow statistical differences between groups.
The Bigger Question: Is England Measuring Educational Progress the Wrong Way?
England’s changing gender attainment figures raise a fundamental policy question.
If boys’ results improve while girls’ results stagnate or decline, the gap between them becomes smaller.
But that does not necessarily mean the education system is performing better overall.
A narrower gap is most encouraging when both groups are making progress.
That is why researchers are urging a more detailed examination of academic trends.
Girls’ continued lead in many subjects should not distract attention from signs of weaker performance.
Boys’ improvement should be welcomed without suggesting that the remaining gaps no longer matter.
Subject-specific differences, especially in mathematics and literacy, also require targeted responses.
England’s education debate should move beyond the question of whether boys or girls are winning academically. The more important test is whether schools are helping both groups reach higher levels of achievement.
For policymakers, this means looking beyond headline examination results.
For teachers, it means understanding the different challenges affecting students.
And for families, it means recognizing that strong grades do not always tell the complete story of a child’s educational experience.
England’s girls may still be ahead in school performance — but if their own progress continues to stall, a shrinking gender gap could conceal an educational problem that deserves far greater attention.
