15 Facts About Single-sex education

Single-sex education, known as single-gender education and gender-isolated education, is the practice of conducting education with male and female students attending separate classes, perhaps in separate buildings or schools.

Single-sex education is practiced in many parts of the world based on tradition and religion; recently, there has been a surge of interest and the establishment of single-sex schools due to educational research.

Single-sex education is most popular in English-speaking countries such as Singapore, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, South Africa and Australia; in Chile, Israel, South Korea and in many Muslim majority countries.

In Western Europe before the 19th century, the most common way for girls to access Single-sex education was at home, through private tutoring, and not at school, due to the strong resistance to women's involvement in schools.

Advocates of single-sex education believe that there are persistent gender differences in how boys and girls learn and behave in educational settings and that such differences merit educating them separately.

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Supporters of single-sex education argue that the culture of coeducational settings causes some students to focus more on socialization, rather than prioritizing academics.

Single-sex education supporters blame this focus on socialization for causing problems in student participation, attendance levels, and disciplinary problems.

In September 2011, the journal Science published a study deeply critical of gender-segregated schooling, arguing that the movement towards single-sex education "is deeply misguided, and often justified by weak, cherry-picked, or misconstrued scientific claims rather than by valid scientific evidence".

The study argues that coSingle-sex education schools provide opportunities for students to interact with their peers, which de-stresses students and creates a friendlier, more relaxed environment.

Until the 19th century, single-sex education was the norm in the United States, although this varied by region.

Mixed-sex Single-sex education started to spread rapidly with the generalization of elementary Single-sex education in the 19th century.

However, higher education was usually single-sex, and men's colleges and women's colleges were common well into the 20th century.

Alternatively, opponents of single-sex education can gather tangible support from observable patterns of pervasive gender inequality in other social contexts.

Studies used to make policy or legal arguments in the current debate over single-sex education narrowly "look only at the slice of the social picture that schooling represents".

An informed assessment regarding the appropriate role of gender segregation in contemporary and future education developments requires contemplation of potential implications beyond the direct, internal, and immediate influences that single-sex schools stand to exert on students.