Co-Education Vs Single Sex Education

As a parent looking to get the best education for your children you are faced with a myriad of choices, including, arguably the most controversial: co-ed or single sex.

There is a lot to take in while considering these options, including social skills, friendships and exposure to the natural co-ed world they live in. Everyone has an opinion on this matter too, and you can almost bet that your conversational partner will have a different one to you.

So instead of blasting an uneducated opinion on the matter, I will simply present the facts, as brought to you by the scientists who conducted them!

Questions to be asked

• Do girls achieve better results in a single sex education environment?
• What about boys?
• Does single sex schooling impair their social skills in later life?

According to the National Association for Single Sex Public Education (NASSPE), there is a widely held belief that girls do better in single sex schools and boys do better in co-educational schools. Research shows girls benefit from single-sex school when it comes to a learning environment that is free from gender discrimination, where girls achieve greater academic success and are more confident.

There are significant differences in the ways girls and boys learn, differences which are more substantial than age differences in many ways,NASSPE website states. In other words, a 7-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy differ, on average, on parameters such as “How long can you sit still, be quiet, and pay attention?” Those differences between a same-age girl and same-age boy are larger than differences between, say, a 7-year-old girl and a 9-year-old girl.

Australian research shows that there are “positive effects of single-sex schooling” in relation to numeracy and literacy testing (NAPLAN) and tertiary entrance scores (TES), while a New Zealand study shows that there is a “pervasive tendency for children attending single-sex schools to have greater success”.

It is a widespread belief that in single sex classrooms teachers have the opportunity to tailor the content to the gender.There is, however, very little research on the long-term social consequences of single-sex and co-educational schooling. Nevertheless, many advocates of co-education argue that mixed schools are essential so that girls and boys can learn to live and work together. In general, their argument is that schools should reflect ‘real’ life.

One website states that co-educational schools better reflect the diversity of our society and they better prepare students to succeed in post-secondary education and to eventually enter the workforce. The website states that students at co-educational schools feel comfortable about who they are and have a healthy and positive attitude and self-image, and most students in co-educational schools indicate,”it is easy for students at my school to find a group that they fit in with”.

However, advocates of all-girl schools suggest that the fact that girls’ schools do not mirror ‘real life’ is a key reason to have them. They argue that generally, western societies are male-dominated and women are frequently second place to men in terms of, amongst other things, opportunities, pay and power. So students and teachers need to challenge and change these inequalities rather than reproduce them in schools.

Proponents of this argument suggest that single-sex schools can be spaces where girls can begin to challenge male dominance and power, where girls can learn that they do not have to take second place to boys, that they can work free from harassment and taunts, and that they can do science.

The little evidence that exists regarding the long-term social consequences of single-sex and mixed schooling reveals no consistent differences in the personal development of girls and boys in these school types.

One website suggests, for example, there are no significant differences between students who attend single-sex schools and students who attend co-educational schools in terms of how easy or difficult they find it to adjust socially to university life.

It seems this is yet another area where we have more unanswered than answered questions.

Which of the two choices do you think is the best for your child?