Pupils in upper secondary education, 1 October 2000

Preliminary figures for the 2000/2001 school year show that male and female pupils still choose different areas of study in upper secondary education. This especially applies to the vocational areas of study, where girls comprise 46.7 per cent of pupils. In itself this is not a large difference. However, if one looks at the individual areas of study, one will find that girls continue to dominate the traditional soft subjects. Likewise there are mostly boys in the hard engineering and mechanical subjects.

Girls and boys

The general areas of study still have the largest share of the total number of pupils at 57.5 per cent. Although there are more girls, 54.4 per cent, in the general areas of study, the difference has narrowed. This is due to the decline in the number of girls among pupils, during both the last school year and the present one. If one looks at the individual areas of study, girls comprise a whopping 91.7 per cent of those in health and social studies, traditionally soft subjects. Likewise girls are in the clear majority of those in the aesthetic areas of study. Girls make up a solid 82.8 per cent of those in arts, crafts and design. The same applies for music, dance and drama, which is not a vocational area of study. Here girls make up 73.2 per cent of the pupils.

Girls comprise a small fraction of pupils in the more hard, and traditionally male-dominated, vocational areas of study. Building and construction trades have are the lowest, with only 1.7 per cent girls, followed closely by electrical trades, with 3.8 per cent girls and engineering and mechanical trades, with 4.4 per cent. These figures differ little from those for the 1999/2000 school year.

During the current school year two new areas of study have been added. These are media and communication and retail and service trades. These subjects have an equal sex distribution.

Continued decline in the number of pupils

For the 2000/2001 school year about 164 000 pupils are registered in upper secondary education. This is a reduction of 5 000 pupils over the previous year. This large difference may be due to underreporting from three counties, which is estimated to comprise around 2 000 pupils. Also for the 2000/2001 school year there has been a decline in the number of pupils in vocational areas of study, which comprise 42.5 per cent of total number of pupils. Otherwise there is a particular decline in the number of pupils aged 20 and over. During the 1999/2000 school year this category made up 14.4 per cent of the total number of pupils, whereas the same category of pupils during the current year comprises 12.6 per cent. This amounts to a decline of 1.8 percentage points, or about 3 700 pupils, and this decline is probably genuine despite the underreporting of short-course pupils from three counties. There is an especially steep decline in pupils aged 30 and over, and in this age group alone there are about 2 000 fewer pupils in the current school year than in the previous one.

At the same time as there is a decline in the total number of pupils, there are more pupils taking the foundation course during the 2000/2001 school year than during 1999/2000. However, there is a decline in the number of pupils taking VKI and VKII. Nevertheless, the population figures as of 1 January 2000 do not show a decline in the size of the cohort aged 15-19. So the decline in the number of pupils nationwide cannot be explained by a decline in population.

These statistics are published annually.

Tables:

• Table 1 Pupils in Upper Secondary Education, by grade, sex and county of residence. 1 October 2000. Preliminary figures.
• Table 2 Pupils in Upper Secondary Education, by age, sex and county of residence. 1 October 2000. Preliminary figures.
• Table 3 Pupils in Upper Secondary Education, by type of education, sex and field of study. 1 October 2000. Preliminary figures.
• Table 4 Pupils in Upper Secondary Education, by sex and field of study. 1 October 2000. Preliminary figures.
• Table 5 Pupils in vocational study in school (VKII), by sex and field of study. 1 October 2000. Preliminary figures.