A new report has found significant differences between the school experiences of young boys and girls. The 'Growing Up in Ireland' report from the ESRI looked at 20,000 9-year-old's across the country.

It found 1-in-4 children have a learning, emotional or behavioural difficulty, particularly boys from disadvantaged areas. And it found that boys are generally less engaged in school than girls.

The report was launched as part of the conference on 'Children’s Engagement in Education' which was opened in Dublin by the Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn.

Researcher Denise Frawley told Newstalk's reporter Louise Kelly about the differences between boys and girls, and why that's important:

The conference aims to highlight the insights of the Growing Up in Ireland study for Irish educational policy. It will use the data to explore 3 main themes:

• Gender: whether boys and girls have different experiences in primary school.
• Special Educational Needs: whether children with special educational needs differ from their peers in their degree of engagement with school.
• Social Background and School Social Mix: whether the concentration of disadvantaged children in particular schools affects children’s educational experiences and outcomes.

Results from the Growing Up in Ireland study show important differences in school engagement (i.e. how a child feels about school) among boys and girls at 9 years of age.

• In terms of academic engagement, girls have slightly higher reading test scores than boys. Greater gender differences are evident from maths test scores, with boys scoring higher (especially at the top end) than girls

• Boys are significantly less likely than girls to look forward to school, to like school and to like their teacher, all else being equal

• Boys have higher levels of school absenteeism and are less likely than girls to complete their homework on a regular basis

• While gender is a significant predictor of school engagement, other factors, such as social background, are crucial in order to distinguish which types of boys and girls are most likely to be disengaged from school