The gender gap in education is continuing to widen with girls outperforming boys in virtually all Junior and Leaving Certificate subjects.
Despite this, women continue to be seriously under-represented in senior academic and teaching posts, accounting for only 8 per cent of university professor posts and just 12 per cent of associate professor posts.
In primary schools, women account for over 83 per cent of all staff - but only 53 per cent of principal posts.
A new Department of Education report also indicates how relatively few female students are taking maths or science-related courses at third level, despite their generally strong performance in the Leaving Cert exam.
In launching the report, the Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin said female graduates outnumber males at all levels of qualification from certificate and diploma up to masters level. Only at PhD level are there broadly equivalent numbers of male and female graduates, she said.
According to the report, two-thirds of those who leave school before the Leaving Cert are boys.
In the exam itself, girls are now outperforming boys in virtually all of the main subjects - and the gap is widening.
While a gender gap of between 4 and 9 per cent was common in the 1980s, the gap in favour of girls reached 14 per cent in Irish and English in recent years, according to the report.
The gender gap has provoked a good deal of study in Irish education, but it is in line with international trends.
But the Republic is unusual because some 36 per cent of schools are single-sex only. A range of studies suggests that boys' academic performance tends to be stronger in a co-educational environment. Studies also suggest that girls do better in a female-only school environment.
Ms Hanafin promised a range of measures to address the gender gap. These include;
• More practical subjects at Leaving Cert level;
• A greater focus on policies designed to keep boys in school until the Leaving Cert;
• A continued public campaign to attract more men into teaching and support for programmes designed to build leadership programmes for women in schools.
The 350-page department report Sé Sí: Gender in Irish Education- written by Muiris O'Connor - tracks one encouraging trend for male students.
It signals how the gender gap tends to tail off appreciably at third level, particularly in final year degree programmes. Male students are more likely, for example, to secure a first-class honours degree from an Irish university.
In a significant finding, the report tends to contradict the view that students perform better in an elitist school environment.
It notes: "Countries that achieve the highest standards of literacy tend to have school systems with little active selection and segregation, where schools embrace and accommodate the diversity of their local communities." The report presents an overview of the gender issue in education in a life-long context - from primary school right through to higher and further education.
