ABSTRACT
In 1982 the Cockcroft Report summarised the relative performance of boys and girls in the following terms:
A smaller proportion of girls than boys enter for O-level mathematics; of those who do enter, a smaller proportion of girls achieve high grades, and of those with high grades, a smaller proportion of girls than boys proceed to A-level. The resu lt of this is that nearly three times as many boys as girls entered for A-level mathematics in 1979.
(Cockroft 1982: 276, para B8).