Gender Equality in Educational Achievement: An East-West Comparison

Sylke V. Schnepf, University of Southampton

Data on educational enrollment show gender parity of pupils attending primary and secondary schools in transition countries. The aim of this paper is to examine whether this gender balance in educational access translates also into gender equality in educational achievement. Besides a comparison of gender differences in mean achievement for transition and OECD countries we discuss differences in boys’ and girls’ achievement distributions and determinants of gender inequality. We test for the robustness of results by carrying out the analysis with three different international surveys on learning achievement and functional literacy during compulsory schooling: the Trends in International Maths and Science Study (TIMSS), the Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Programme of International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS).