Key point here is:<p><pre><code> [H]igh schools under Tokyo Metropolitan Government jurisdiction are the only prefectural schools to have separate enrollment caps for male and female students. The numbers at each high school are based on the ratio of boys to girls at public junior high schools in Tokyo.
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I.e., this is sort of “affirmative action” for boys since girls score much higher. From personal experience, too, I’ve seen girls score much higher than boys at the school level here in India.
The reasoning is something along the lines that a college education is more important to boys than girls, which kinda makes sense in a world where jobs require college degrees and men are the sole breadwinner.<p>Basically, the logic goes: giving a seat to a girl at a high school robs the seat from a boy and therefore his chance at getting into a good university, and since the girl is going to be a homemaker anyway ...
I read the article - but it doesn't explain why high schools are doing this. Is it purely sexism? Could it be that girls are performing better than boys and the pursuit of a 50/50 gender split increases the requirements for girls? Would be interested if anyone knew the reason as it isn't presented in this article.
If this is a real problem they are having and not a cultural artefact boys and girls need a different curriculum. Lean on strenghts instead of weaknesses.