Should Schools Be Co-Educational?

We have spent several generations advancing the equality of the genders. Beginning with the women's suffrage movement and continuing through to the present day many legal and social barriers to women's equality with men have been removed. Coeducation refers to the education of boys and girls in the same schools. It was a modern concept first introduced in Switzerland, but now it has become popular in almost all of the countries, even Singapore. With that in mind, coeducation, which is based on that laudable theme of equality, seems like the right way to go. However, do co-educational institutes really benefit the students? While a co-educational school or college may cause more distractions for learning and prevent students from making educational choices without stereotypes, the advantages that it brings far outweigh the problem it poses, especially in terms of the student’s social development, how it promotes a healthy lifestyle for boys, and providing equal opportunities for all.

Undoubtedly, coeducation allows interaction between boys and girls, which are an integral part of their lives in the future. From family life, to professional life, to one’s daily routine, the world contains both men and women. Settling grades aside, education is about the preparation of life. If girls naturally perform better in an environment without boys, they need to perform just as well with boys and vice versa because in the future, they would not be surrounded by the same gender all the time. If they are given the chance from the very beginning, through Co-curricular activities, classroom interaction or any other means, they can understand each other better. Girls will not feel shy in the presence of boys and boys will also not tease the girls. A research in the United States has shown that students from single sex schools are more hesitant expressing their views in front of members of the opposite sex, and at the same time, they have trouble forming friendships with the opposite sex as well. Hence, by allowing coeducational schools, it provides girls and boys a better induction into our world, allowing them to understand each other better.

Coeducational schools also provide equal opportunities for all. Co-education is an economical system, where both boys and girls can study in the same schools and they can be taught by the same teachers of equal calibre. Some teachers may prefer working at girls schools while some at boys schools due to their own different reasons. For example, if more teachers prefer working in a girl’s school and more teachers apply to girl’s schools, then these schools would naturally take in the best teachers, leaving the lesser inspiring or outstanding teachers to the local boy’s or co-educational schools. As such, girls are getting far better chances in life as they are receiving better teaching. This is not fair. If all schools were co-educational, everyone would receive equal opportunities.

Some men always say that they do not understand women; perhaps this is because they have attended single-sex schools. A research conducted by the London University’s Institute of Education covered 17,000 adults who had been taught in a range of institutions from private boarding schools to state comprehensives that were born in the same week of 1958. The results of the research revealed that men taught in single-sex schools face divorce and depression by the early 40s. Boys learn better when they are with girls and they actually learn to get on better, according to Dr Mary Bousted, the general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers. Thus, it is evident of how co-education promotes a healthy lifestyle for boys in the future or in schooling life.

However, there are some downsides to co-education as well. Admittedly, in a co-educational school, students are easily distracted by the opposite gender. Teaching teenagers in a classroom environment can be a hard task, even if they are of the same sex. Think of the distractions there would be with the opposite sex in the room. Boys’ eyes will not be on the white board but on the girls, while girls will be passing notes around and gossiping at the back about who they would like to date or eventually marry. With all of this carrying on, neither sex will learn anything in the classroom. Then, relationships will form, and this will also distract the students. Should the relationship fail, how could both parties continue on with education as they normally would in the same class? Thus, the top-notch educational institutes all in most countries are usually single-sex schools. Taking Singapore as an example, the best secondary schools in the nation, such as Raffles Instituition, Raffles Girls Secondary School, Hwa Chong Instituition, and Nanyang Girls High School are all single-sex. This is evidence showing that students would perform academically better in a school without the opposite gender.

Co-education also prevents students from making educational choices without stereotypes. A threat of judgment because you want to study traditionally masculine subjects like physics and maths, or traditionally girly subjects like literature is present and this hinders them from pursuing their talent or their passion. This is in addition to the pressure that the students would put on themselves. If a boy wanted to study dance, the stereotype of dance being a traditionally feminine art might change the boy’s decision of doing so. A girl may want to study woodwork, but would not have the confidence to be the only girl in the class doing so. In a single sex school, these pressures do not exist. If the subject is offered, any girl or boy who was interested would not feel ashamed in taking it knowing that everyone else in the class would be in the same position.

All in all, co-education does have its disadvantages, but its merits far outweigh the problems it poses. As long as the students are mature enough to know that relationships at such a young age are discouraged, a co-educational school or college would provide both males and females a chance to better understand and communicate with each other, allowing them to be more apt for socialization in the future. Admittedly, there would be some judgements made on students wanting to take a subject known to be for the opposite sex, which in turn might hinder them from doing so. However, I believe that if the child was truly passionate about that subject, he or she would not be stopped from pursuing it just because of the social protocol. It would also create equal opportunities for all genders, because both the girls and boys are taught by the same coaching staff. Therefore, I strongly believe that schools and colleges should be co-educational.