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SCHOOL

Boys fall further behind girls in school: report

There is an increasing difference between the performance of girls and boys in Swedish schools, with girls pulling away from their male counterparts, according to new statistics published by the National Agency for Education (Skolverket).

Boys fall further behind girls in school: report

“We are worried about these results,” Christina Sandström at the agency told The Local on Thursday.

“We have known for a long time that girls have better school results than boys. What is new is that the results are increasing. There has always been a gap, but now it is bigger,” Sandström explained.

On Wednesday, Skolverket published the school results of this summer’s ninth-year students. These results showed that girls’ school results were an average of 223.8 (out of 320), whereas boys scored an average of 199.5.

The statistics also showed that more girls qualified for high school (gymnasiet) programmes than boys.

Skolverket concluded that though results are improving for most student groups, boys with a foreign background and boys with less educated parents are actually performing worse.

“I do not begrudge any success for the girls, but it would be terribly serious to lose a generation of boys and immigrants,” Karl-Petter Thorwaldsson of the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) told the TT news agency.

Christina Sandström underlined that while the difference between the grade point average for girls and boys may seem small in numerical terms, when applied to 100,000 students, a gap of over 20 points is actually very significant.

”It takes a lot to make a major change”.

Meanwhile, Social Democrat Ibrahim Baylan is more worried about the general decrease in students that qualify for high school (gymnasiet) programmes, for the 6th year in a row.

The report indicated that proportion of qualified students decreased from 87.7 percent to 87.5 percent.

“The current school policy has reached the end of the road. The government is simply not doing the right thing,” Baylan told TT.

Sandström recognized that while the change is small, the trend is clear in that the results are getting worse.

“We want results to be better. We have implemented a new syllabus and it is very important that schools take the new goals for education seriously,” she continued.

“We have made changes within school regulations, but it is important that schools also implement these modifications.”

Sandström said that research is ongoing into why girls systematically achieve better results than boys at this level, but there is currently no definitive explanation.

”I don’t know if we ever can solve it,” she said.

TT/Sanne Schim van der Loeff

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TAMPONS

Two German men face backlash over ‘Pinky’ period glove product

Two German men who came up with a pink glove to help women dispose of tampons have sparked a backlash on social media, with critics panning the product as useless and sexist.

Two German men face backlash over 'Pinky' period glove product
A tampon being displayed after its manufacturer. Photo: DPA

At a menstrual cramp-inducing 11.96 for a pack of 48, the Pinky is a plastic glove that doubles as a disposal bag to provide a “discreet solution for pads and tampons”, according to the product website.

Andre Ritterswuerden and Eugen Raimkulow, who met in the army, presented their product on Monday on the German version of the Dragons’ Den TV show where inventors pitch to potential investors, drawing 30,000 from an entrepreneur.

But the two men quickly found themselves facing a slew of disparaging comments on social media, with the hashtag #PinkyGate trending on Twitter on Wednesday.

“We both really do understand women,” Raimkulow said on the TV show, basing their qualifications on both being married and having lived with women in flat shares.

Occasionally, he would “dare to look in the rubbish bin”, he said.

“After a while it just smells unpleasant. And you can see it, because it starts seeping through the paper.”

READ ALSO: Tampon tax: Why menstral products are set to become cheaper in Germany

“Every day there is another useless product for the vagina,” tweeted Canadian-American gynaecologist Jennifer Gunter, author of The Vagina Bible. “I need to throw (the book) at these idiots,” she said.

Even the conservative daily Die Welt waded in, pointing out that plastic gloves and disposal bags can already be bought for a fraction of the price — albeit in other colours.

“Is this a real invention? No,” it said. “It is no surprise that there are no women behind the Pinky but two men, who have no experience of using sanitary products.”

Ritterswuerden and Eugen Raimkulow published a video on Wednesday addressing the criticism.

“In no way did we mean to suggest that menstruation is something disgusting,” they said, adding: “We realise that we have not fully taken on board different views on the subject.”

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