Girls do like hard maths, says children’s commissioner for England

Katharine Birbalsingh previously told MPs that girls avoided physics A-levels because ‘there’s a lot of hard maths in there that I think they would rather not do’. Photograph: Virojt Changyencham/Getty Images

The debate over why so few girls take maths-based A-levels descended into “tsar wars” on Friday after the children’s commissioner for England hit out at suggestions that girls found the subject too difficult.

Rachel de Souza told a conference of school leaders in Birmingham that girls were more likely to be put off taking science, technology and maths (Stem) subjects by male-dominated classes and a lack of female role models.