The younger school age is one of the most important periods in the growth and development of a child, during which it is necessary to pay great attention to the development of the child's functional abilities. The results of recent research, especially children of younger school age, indicate that there is a problem of a constant decline in the functional abilities in pupils of both sexes. This research was conducted on a sample of 139 second grade elementary school schoolboys and schoolgirls. Four variables were examined for which is considered to give a picture of the functional status of the students: heart rate at rest (FPUMI), heart rate after load (FPPOP), Harvard step test (FHAST), and vital lung capacity in cm3 (FVKAP). The main goal it was to determine whether there are differences in functional abilities between schoolboys and schoolgirls of the second grade of elementary school. The results of the multivariate analysis (MANOVA) have shown that there is a statistically significant difference between the schoolboys and schoolgirls in analysed functional abilities. A univariate analysis (ANOVA) revealed that schoolboys had better results in measurements of heart rate at rest (FPUMI) and heart rate after load (FPPOP). On the Harvard step test (FHAST) and vital lung capacity measurements (FVKAP) there were no significant differences between the schoolboys and schoolgirls. It was concluded that the current physical education curriculum does not contribute sufficiently to the development of the functional abilities of the schoolboys and schoolgirls of the junior school age.