Girls are beating boys in schools everywhere

Girls are beating boys in schools everywhere — even in places where they lack basic rights

A new study from Gijsbert Stoet of the University of Glasgow and David C. Geary of the University of Missouri found that girls tend to outperform boys in educational achievement in most countries around the world. Even more impressive, the girls' stellar performances extended to countries in which women face major obstacles to social, political, economic or gender inequality. + The report looked at 1.5 million 15-year-olds in 74 countries around the world the world, examining their performance on the Programme for International Student Assessment, a global survey that aims to evaluate education systems worldwide. + In 70% of countries, girls scored significantly better than boys on the standardized test, which includes reading, mathematics and science literacy sections. + Even in places that typically rank poorly when it comes to gender equality, such as Qatar, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, the gap between the sexes is fairly high, and girls come out on top. + Boys did better in just three places: Colombia, Costa Rica and the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.