Why are girls outperforming boys academically?(2)

"I tried to ban him from playing video games at home by taking away his PlayStation 4," she said. "But I soon found that…he was playing games on his phone in bed every night until dawn."

Qi also discovered that her son was skipping lunch at school so he could use the money to play videogames at a nearby cyber-cafe.

When she caught him in the act, surrounded by several of his male classmates, her son retorted, "I'm a boy, and boys are supposed to play computer games! Should I stay home and play with dolls like my [female cousin]?" Qi said.

After the confrontation, Qi said she gave in and returned her son's PlayStation 4 to him, on the condition that he only plays for two hours per day maximum.

Assessment standards favor girls?

Xiong Bingqi, a deputy director of 21st Century Education Development Research Institute, offered a slightly different explanation as to why boys were performing more poorly than girls academically.

While he agreed that boys were tended to be less disciplined when it came to their studies, he attributed the discrepancy to teaching biases and the systems of evaluation.

"China's current evaluation system is more advantageous to girls," said Xiong.

He said that girls tended to be better at memorization because they are taught from a young age to pay attention to details, and to be obedient, which meant they were more likely to score high in exams.

The OECD report found that teachers could sometimes be biased in their marking, giving lower grades to male students who were more likely to be disobedient or showed a poor attitude in the classroom.

They found that in assessments that were anonymously marked, and where the assessor did not know whether the student was a boy or a girl, the gap between boys and girls in reading proficiency was smaller.

The OECD also found that boys were more likely to be asked to repeat a year, in cases where a girl of similar ability was not.

Xie said that parents needn't be overly concerned if their son was falling behind in their academic studies, as there are still opportunities for men to make a good living even if they did not do well at school.

"Achieving academically and going to university is one way [to ensure a decent living], but there is another option, which is to go to a vocational school, where only a few years' study can lead to a relatively high income job," said Xie.

"Parents should encourage the all-round development of their sons' interests rather than only pushing them hard in their academic studies."

A recent report published by the Peking University Market and Media Research Center showed that the average monthly salary across the 7.2 million new university graduates in China last year was 2,400 yuan ($387.3).

Forty-percent of new graduates still had to rely on financial support from their parents.

In comparison, there are some professions in China that don't require a university education in which people can earn considerably more.

The average monthly salary for a skilled hand-pulled noodle-maker in Beijing is 12,000 yuan, according to a 2014 Beijing Youth Daily report. Bus drivers and porters earn 8,000 yuan per month on average.

Different options

Qi however, said that she and her husband both hoped that their son would be able to turn around his academic struggles to get into a good university, and go on to complete a master's degree and then a doctorate.

"In China, one must urge his or her child to study hard," said Qi. "My son's scores have been slipping, but we will definitely find a way to reverse this crisis."

Xie said he understood why Chinese parents might be anxious about their child performing poorly academically, as exam results can go a long way in determining what kind of future he or she might have. But he urged parents to be more open-minded.

"If their son is passionate about something outside of the classroom, or their son really has no interest in school at all, they should just let it go," said Xie.

These days, a taxi driver's monthly salary can be pretty high, said Xie, and taxi drivers also have more leisure time than some white-collar professions.

"Who can say it's not a good life," said Xie.