# 1. Introduction

There is a large and consistent performance gap observed between boys and girls in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. On top of having the second largest proportion of children in learning poverty (i.e., lacking basic skills in reading toward the end of primary school<sup>1</sup> ), MENA has the largest gender gap in learning poverty among regions with available data (Gregory et al. 2021; World Bank 2021).<sup>2</sup> This gender gap in student performance, however, varies across MENA countries. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is among the countries with the largest gender gaps in student achievement in the world. Boys in Saudi Arabia consistently and significantly underperform compared to girls across different grades and subjects. For example, in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019, grade 4 boys in Saudi Arabia scored below girls by approximately 26 points in mathematics and 60 points in science (Mullis et al. 2020). A similar gender gap exists in grade 8, where boys underperform girls by approximately 17 points in mathematics and 47 points in science. Furthermore, in grade 4, 53 percent of boys failed to achieve minimum proficiency in mathematics compared to 45 percent of girls. Similarly, in grade 8, 58 percent of boys did not achieve the lowest international benchmark (400 points) to be considered as minimally proficient in mathematics, compared to 49 percent of girls. Data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 also show that almost twice as many 15year-old boys (65 percent) failed to achieve minimum proficiency in reading, compared to 38 percent of girls (OECD 2019).

Although the magnitude of the gender gap in Saudi Arabia is among the largest in the world, significant differences in achievement between boys and girls are also observed in many other countries (Mullis et al. 2017; 2020). A large body of research has explored the factors contributing to the gender gap in student performance internationally (Autor et al. 2016; 2019; Bertrand and Pan 2013; Buchmann and DiPrete 2006; DiPrete and Buchmann 2013; DiPrete and Jennings 2012; Fortin, Oreopoulos, and Phipps 2015; Jha and Pouezevara 2016; Legewie and DiPrete 2012; OECD 2021). Evidence from this research suggests that social norms, school characteristics, students’ social and behavioral skills, and family background are the main factors associated with the achievement gap between boys and girls.

Prior research indicates that, compared to boys, girls tend to have better noncognitive skills, such as self-regulation and persistence, and spend more time doing assignments and homework (Buchmann and DiPrete 2006; Cornwell, Mustard, and Van Parys 2013; DiPrete and Jennings 2012; Downey and Vogt Yuan 2005; OECD 2021). Other studies found that school characteristics such as school quality, disciplinary practices, and school climate (i.e., the institutional norms, practices, structures, values, and relationships underpinning a student’s experience of school) can affect boys and girls differently. An important study combined birth records with school administrative data from the US state of Florida to identify the effects of school quality (with school-level gains in mathematics and reading scores used to indicate quality) on the gender achievement gap between opposite-gender siblings who attend the same sets of schools (Autor et al. 2016). This study found that boys benefitted more than girls from studying in higher quality schools. Similarly, another recent study (OECD 2021) based on data from two large-scale international assessments showed that school discipline problems affect boys more negatively than girls. Combining data from the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2018 and PISA 2018, the study found that increases in teachers’ perceptions of classroom discipline problems are associated with an increase in the achievement gap between girls and boys (OECD 2021). The results also showed that other school

> 1 More formally, learning poverty is defined as “being unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10”, whether children are enrolled in school or not (World Bank 2019, 6).

> 2 The learning poverty rate is calculated using the results of international student assessments, adjusted for the share of out-of-school children. Overall, 59 percent of children in MENA are not able to read and understand an age-appropriate text by age 10. About two-thirds of boys in MENA (66 percent) lack basic skills in reading compared to 56 percent of girls, resulting in the largest gender gap in learning poverty among all regions.

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