Single-sex education

Gender-isolated education
Single sex schools
Sexually segregated schools
Single-gender education

Nature

Single-sex education refers to the practice of educating students in separate classes or schools based on their gender. While proponents argue it can enhance learning by reducing distractions and catering to different learning styles, critics highlight potential problems, including the reinforcement of gender stereotypes, limited social interaction between genders, and a lack of preparation for coeducational environments. Research on its effectiveness is mixed, with some studies suggesting no significant academic advantage over coeducational settings. The debate continues over whether single-sex education addresses or exacerbates existing educational inequalities and social dynamics.

Incidence

Globally, single-sex education remains prevalent in various regions, particularly in parts of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. According to UNESCO, as of 2021, countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Pakistan maintain widespread single-sex schooling at primary and secondary levels, often due to cultural or religious norms. In contrast, most Western countries have seen a decline in single-sex schools, with less than 2% of public schools in the United States offering single-sex classrooms as of 2018.
In 2017, Seoul, South Korea, witnessed public debate when the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education announced plans to convert several single-sex high schools to coeducational institutions. This move faced significant opposition from parents and alumni, highlighting the ongoing societal divisions and challenges associated with transitioning away from single-sex education models.

Claim

It is artificial to isolate boys and girls from one another. They fail to learn ways of fully interacting together, intellectually as well as socially. Sexually segregated schools produce unbalanced young people, experienced in the ways of their own sex but naive in, and untempered by, the ways of the other.

Counter-claim

Poor and minority girls in inner cities are especially at risk from problems such as teenage pregnancy, dropping out of school, sexual abuse, depression, drug abuse and gang violence. Many girls in co-ed schools absorb attitudes of passivity, choicelessness and submission to men, that separate schools could change by supporting girls' efforts to choose their own lives and by promoting leadership for women.