Coeducation

One is struck by the anecdotal nature of the debate surrounding coeducation versus single sex education. When I first came into teaching some thirty years ago, the debate was all about girl’s underachievement in mathematics and sciences. Now the debate is about boys underachievement in literacy. The former was set in a context of significant numbers of single sex schools with coeducation seen as one of the key drivers of school improvement. Now coeducation is seen as part of the problem and we hear calls for the creation of more single sex schools. The answer is, of course, that the reasons for underachievement are complex.

Key factors in the underachievement of children are social class and ability as a recent study has shown. Gender is identified as a weak and inconsistent factor. In that study the authors comment: 'The paradox of education is that the beliefs are so strong and the evidence is so weak.' This seems to be particularly true in the coeducation versus single sex debate. The most recent research paper by Ofsted comments on early reading as follows '… while differences in performance between boys and girls emerge early, they can be countered by good quality teaching that has high appeal for all pupils.' Good schools are about good teaching rather than selection by gender. Good teaching will be appropriate for both boys and girls. I cannot believe that introducing a sense of competitiveness into some aspects of learning is bad for girls or believe that promoting teamworking is bad for boys.

If the case for attainment does not stand close scrutiny, why would I, given two equally good schools, prefer to send my children to a coeducational school? My experience covers quite a range as a result of my experience as a pupil, a parent, a teacher and a school inspector in the independent sector. I do not believe that one understands one’s own identity in hermetic seclusion from the other half of the human race: we are social animals whose sense of self  comes from our interaction with others as much as from our own internal dialogue.

For me schools are not something outside the 'real world', they are the real world. Schools must reflect the values we want for our society. They should be places in which children grow into young men and women understanding one another and valuing the contribution each can make to the world. They should be places where prejudices about gender are challenged and children follow their interests and strengths. Schools can teach the value of lasting relationships and act as a counter to the trivialisation of love. For me the achievement of all of this is so much easier in the coeducational setting.

In my own work I see coeducation working effectively, helping children to grow into confident young adults who have a real sense of who they are and where they want to go in the world. Other schools would wish to make the same claim but they make it not because they are coeducational or single sex but because they are good schools.

Dr David Mascord BA PhD

Headmaster, Bristol Grammar School