Error: Reference source not foundCo-education: a high price to pay

Research carried out in the Eighties strongly indicated that co-education was generally better for boys than for girls. The dangers of single-sex education for boys have often been stated, and there has long been an assumption that girls benefit from co-education in the same way. Recent research tells us that this as­sumption is wrong. Girls studying in co-educational schools can, it seems, pay a high price in diminished career ambitions, poor self-confidence and under-achievement in academically rigorous subjects such as science and mathematics.

Girls' schools are working hard to compete with the independent boys' schools that are currently increasing their intake. Marlborough, the pioneer, has increased its number of girls and be­gun admitting them at 13. The battle for girl pupils is growing fiercer all the time. Averil Burgess, headteacher of South Hampstead High School, believes parents needs to consider the effect of mixed class-loom learning on reinforcing gender "stereotypes." She believes that in the halfway house type of co-education favoured by inde­pendent boys' schools, men become "macho" and girls are forced to be inarticulate and passive. This is inevitable, she says, when the school is still run by the male-dominated senior teachers with little insight into gender education issues. She points to a study by Professor Hoyle of London University showing how boys were allowed to jump the queue to gain access to limited computer fa­cilities. As a result girls' choice of career of computing suffers.

T he recent introduction of co-education by Oxbridge colleges items to have had the same harmful effect on girls' academic performance as identified in schools. In 1958, 8.1 per cent of men and 7,4 of women won firsts. In 1973, the corresponding figures were 12 and 12.1 per cent. Since the mid-eighties, when both men and women's colleges have admitted members of the opposite sex, 16.1 per cent of men have gained firsts, but only 9.8 per cent of women. As Averil Burgess argues: "Maybe the girls fall too readily into the sock-washing and meal-providing mode for the benefit of male colleagues and to the detriment of their work. At least a single sex institution offers the freedom not to behave as a woman."

No one is suggesting that boys should be restricted to single-sex education; co-education is here to stay. But boys' schools with minority of girls should take care to protect the latter from social domination by the boys. Parents should consider a single-sex school as a first option for their daughters, even if they choose co-education for their son. Maybe the implicit contradiction in that statement will only be resolved when girls' schools admit boys on gender-aware terms.

Read the following text. Give convincing arguments FOR and ADAINST co-educational schools.

Any form of education other than co-education is simply unthinkable

Imagine being asked to spend twelve or so years of your life in a society, which consisted only of members of your own sex. How would you react? Unless there was something definitely wrong with you, you wouldn't be too happy about it, to say the least. It is all the more surprising therefore that so many parents in the world choose to impose such abnormal conditions on their children – conditions which they themselves wouldn't put up with for one minute!

Any discussion of this topic is bound to question the aims of education. Stuffing children's heads full of knowledge is far from being foremost among them. One of the chief aims of education is to equip future citizens with all they require to take their place in adult society. Now adult society is made up of men and women, so how can a segregated school possibly offer the right sort of preparation for it? Anyone entering adult society after years of segregation can only be in for a shock.

A co-educational school offers children nothing less than a true version of society in miniature. Boys and girls are given the opportunity to get to know each other, to learn to live together from their earliest years? They are put in a position where they can compare themselves with each other in terms of academic ability, athletic achievement and many of the extra-curricular activities, which are part of school life. What a practical advantage it is (to give just a small example) to be able to put on a school play in which the male parts will be taken by boys and the female parts by girls! What nonsense co-education makes of the argument that boys are cleverer than girls or vice-versa. When segregated, boys and girls are made to feel that they are a race apart. Rivalry between the sexes is fostered. In a co-educational school, everything falls into its proper place.

But perhaps the greatest contribution of co-education is the healthy attitude to life it encourages. Boys don't grow up believing that women are mysterious creatures – airy goddesses, more like book-illustrations to a fairy-tale, than human beings. Girls don't grow up imagining that men are romantic heroes. Years of living together at school dispel illusions of this kind. There are no goddesses with freckles, pigtails, piercing voices and inky fingers. There are no romantic heroes with knobbly knees, dirty fingernails and unkempt hair. The awkward stage of adolescence brings into sharp focus some of the physical and emotional problems involved in growing up. These can better be overcome in a co-educational environment. Segregated schools sometimes provide the right conditions for sexual deviation. This is hardly possible under a co-educational system. When the time comes for the pupils to leave school, they are fully prepared to enter society as well-adjusted adults. They have already had years of experience in coping with many of the problems that face men and women.

The argument: key words

1. Imagine spending 12 years with members of own sex. Reactions? wouldn't enjoy it.

2. Many parents impose these conditions on their children.

3. Discussion of topic must question aims of education.

4. Not only accumulation of knowledge.

5. Equipping future citizens for adult society.

6. Segregated schools: not the right sort of preparation.

7. Co-educational school: society in miniature.

8. Boys and girls learning to live together.

9. Can compare themselves: academic and athletic abilities; school activities.

10. Many practical advantages: e.g. school plays.

11. Boys and girls not made to feel a race apart.

12. Co-education encourages healthy attitudes to life.

13. Boys: no illusions about women: airy goddesses.

14. Girls: no illusions about men: romantic heroes.

15. No goddesses with freckles, pigtails, piercing voices, etc.

16. No romantic heroes with knobbly knees, dirty fingernails, etc.

17. Physical and emotional adolescent problems best overcome in co­educational environment.

18. Sexual deviation hardly possible.

19. Pupils enter society as well-adjusted adults.