We at TEK have strongly advocated for equality from a variety of perspectives. This means that we should also care about the issues that boys and men face.
We have heard news about how the PISA ranking of Finnish students is declining. But at the same time, Finnish girls actually still produce some of the highest test scores. The weaker overall score is due to the weaker test performance of boys. This is a concerning piece of news.
Girls also outperform boys in mathematics. Back in 2009, boys performed better than girls, but ever since 2012, girls have outperformed boys in mathematics. This is not a common phenomenon – in almost every other country, there has been little difference in the science scores of girls and boys.
The same trend continues in upper secondary school. Of the students in upper secondary school, 60 per cent are girls and 40 per cent are boys.
All this despite the fact that 61 per cent of the students receiving enhanced support in primary school in 2022 were boys and 39 per cent were girls. In terms of students receiving special needs support, two out of three were boys while the rest were girls. However, equal numbers of boys and girls attend primary school, so there’s also good reason to ask if everything is okay with our primary education.
Our labour market is also strongly segregated by gender. This can already be seen during studies. According to the education administration's Vipunen database, women account for almost 90 per cent of the students commencing pedagogical studies this year and more than 80 per cent of the students entering subject teacher education programmes.
And naturally, we would like to see even more women pursuing university studies in technology. Women now make up just under one quarter of the students in the field.
Boys should not be forgotten. Boys should also be encouraged to learn, do and participate.
The article is the editorial of TEK Magazine 4/2023.
