Female Students Outshine Males in 2025 G.C.E. (A/L) Examination Results

The Department of Examinations has released the performance analysis for the 2025 G.C.E. Advanced Level (A/L) Examination, revealing a significant gender gap in achievement and a steady overall university eligibility rate. Out of 281,810 total candidates who sat for all three core subjects, 176,527 (62.64%) have qualified for university entrance.

Gender Performance Gap

The most striking data from this year’s report is the dominance of female candidates in almost every performance metric. While females made up roughly 61% of the total candidates sat, they accounted for 65% of those eligible for university entrance.

• University Eligibility: 67.14% of female candidates qualified for university, compared to only 55.57% of males.
• Top Achievers: Female students also led the “3 A’s” category, with 5,351 girls achieving the feat compared to 2,949 boys.
• Failure Rates: Male candidates were more likely to fail in all subjects, with a failure rate of 14.20%, nearly double the 8.90% recorded for females.

Performance by Subject Stream

The Commerce and Bio Systems Technology streams recorded the highest success rates among school candidates.

In terms of raw numbers, the Arts stream remains the most popular, with 70,925 school candidates sitting for the exam, followed by Commerce (47,995) and Bio Science (41,324).

Regional Highlights

When analyzed by province, the Northern Province emerged as the leader for overall candidate performance (School and Private combined), with a 65.19% university eligibility rate. However, focusing strictly on school candidates, the Western Province took the top spot at 69.43%, followed closely by the North Western Province at 68.48%.

At the district level, Colombo (70.77%), Mannar (70.27%), and Puttalam (70.09%) were the only districts to surpass a 70% eligibility rate for school candidates.