Using data of the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational
Quality (SACMEQ), gender differences in reading and mathematics in 15 SACMEQ school
systems have been analysed.
Results revealed that at the Grade 6 level, reading achievement was mostly in favour of girls
while the mathematics achievement was mostly in favour of boys in 2007. While gender
equality in Grade 6 participation has improved in many SACMEQ school systems, the size
and the direction of gender differences in learning achievement have been very stable from
2000 to 2007, no matter who (boys or girls) performed better. Separate analyses by school
location and socioeconomic status (SES) show that in rural schools and among lower SES
groups across SACMEQ school systems, gender differences in both reading and mathematics
have become slightly larger in 2007 than in 2000. There was a slight improvement in gender
equality in achievement in reading and mathematics in urban schools, and a reasonable
improvement in higher SES groups.
These findings have led to the hypothesis that previous gender-related interventions have
neglected the important quality aspect that may influence learning achievement, especially in
rural schools and among lower socio-economic groups.