Not offering girls in single sex schools the choice of studying a range of STEM subjects is a "hangover" from a more sexist time, Ciara Kelly has argued. 

New research by the non-profit I Wish found that 55% of pupils in all girls’ schools view limited subject choice as a barrier.

By comparison, this was only the case for 37% in mixed schools. 

Only 5% of girls in single sex schools could study construction studies, while in mixed schools the figure rose to 84%. 

The research echoes a Department of Education survey last year that found only 71% of girls’ schools offer at least one STEM subject other than maths and a science. 

By contrast, in boys’ schools, the figure rose to 96%. 

One Newstalk Breakfast, presenter Shane Coleman said the figures had surprised him.

  “I hadn’t realised that was still the case,” he said. 

“I had assumed that the days of boys doing chemistry and physics, with girls maybe doing biology, I thought those days were over. 

“It’s obviously unacceptable.” 

Students doing their Leaving Cert exams. Picture by: AG News / Alamy Stock Photo.

Shane argued that the figures are a good reason to bring an end to single sex schools and teach all children together. 

“I don’t understand how, in the year 2025, we still have segregated schools,” he added. 

“I don’t understand that; I think boys and girls should be in the same school. 

“We don’t segregate in life, why are we segregating schools?

“It’s definitely disadvantaging girls, there’s no question about that.” 

Co-presenter Ciara Kelly, who studied medicine in college, said she had felt disadvantaged when she started her course because the only science subject she studied was biology. 

“For the girls who want to get into the STEM area, it does have a knock on effect, it does have a disadvantage,” he said. 

“Even if you manage to get into your third level course in STEM, you don’t have that grounding necessarily that the lads have.” 

Perhaps, Ciara continued, the lack of science in girls’ schools is rooted in sexist ideals from the recent past. 

“It just seems like this hangover that girls do biology, it’s a nice ‘soft’ science,” she said. 

“They might go into nursing or something.”

Main image: Ciara Kelly. Picture by: Newstalk.