3 days ago
Leaving Cert STEM subjects still experiencing sizable gender gap
There is still a stark gender gap in the Leaving Cert, with boys still more likely than girls to be studying physics, chemistry, engineering and other STEM subjects, new figures show.
Girls are also still more likely than boys to be studying languages as Leaving Cert subjects.
While the majority of both male and female sixth-year Leaving Cert students study at least one elective science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) subject, this drops significantly once biology is excluded.
Just over 43% of female Leaving Cert students studied another STEM subject outside of biology, such as agricultural science, applied maths, or construction studies. This compares to 70.3% when it comes to Leaving Cert boys.
It drops even further when it comes to the numbers studying two or more STEM subjects. Little over 10% of girls were studying two or more STEM subjects excluding biology, compared to almost 38% of boys.
The figures are included in the latest Education Indicators for 2025, published recently by the Department of Education, and based on data collected between the academic years of 2019/20 to 2023/24.
At Leaving Cert level, almost 87% of all girls' schools offered Leaving Cert physics, chemistry and biology in 2023. This compares to 93.5% of all boys schools, and 70.1% of mixed gender schools.
Almost all schools, whether they were mixed or co-educational, offered students the choice to study a STEM subject other than maths or a science at Leaving Cert, the figures show.
However, in 2022, the latest year for which data is available, just over 29% of girls in third year were taking at least one STEM subject other than science or maths. This compares to 72.7% of boys.
Languages
When it comes to languages, more than 75% of sixth-year girls studied at least one foreign language, compared to 55% of boys. Close to 49% of all Leaving Cert students were studying a foreign language other than French, including German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese and Arabic.
The figures also show that the percentage of schools offering at least two foreign languages slightly increased in recent years, while the percentage taking a foreign language other than French in the Leaving Certificate has decreased.
More than 79% of post-primary schools were offering at least two foreign languages, while almost 60% offered two or more foreign languages as part of Transition Year.
DEIS and special schools
Meanwhile, the latest education indicators also show that the gap in retention to Leaving Certificate between DEIS and non-DEIS schools slightly improved.
The figures also show that the number of students in special schools grew, from 7,856 in 2019 to 8,827 in 2023. The number of students attending special classes also almost doubled at both primary and post-primary level.
During the same timeframe, the number of special education teachers rose by 6.3% to 14,385, while total special needs assistants (SNAs) increased by 31.5% to 20,781.
Despite falling numbers of enrolments, the number of primary schools has remained "relatively stable" at 3,229 in total, the report notes.
