Education Overhaul: Single-Sex Schools

Last week, figures were released which showed that divorce rates in the UK had risen for the first time in seven years, with over 132,000 marriages ending in 2010. You may be thinking: what on earth has this got to do with education?  Well, a study published in 2009 shows that boys taught at single-sex schools are more likely to be divorced or separated from their partner by their early 40s than those who attended a mixed school.

Now, clearly, single-sex schools can’t just be closed down because they lead to higher divorce rates for men, however this is not the only thing they lead to. It has been shown that isolating boys can increase aggression, and they are more likely to develop behavioural problems whilst isolating girls can lead to them accepting gender stereotypes. In fact, students taught without members of the opposite sex in the classroom can often be more sexist, show stereotyped attitudes towards one another and have a distrust of the opposite sex.

Educating students without their counterparts from the opposite gender does improve exam results though, doesn’t it? The answer to that question is quite simply: no. There is no evidence to suggest that educating students in single-sex schools leads to a better learning environment and improved results. The reason why single-sex schools are often close to the top of school league tables is that they are often independent, fee-paying schools, or otherwise, they are selective and only take on the brightest students. In fact, Dr. Mary Bousted, general secretary of the ATL, says that ‘all the research shows that single sex schools are bad for boys – in terms of academic performance and socialisation.

Many of you probably already know what my solution to this problem is going to be and I’m not going to surprise you when I say that we should abolish single-sex schools in this country. Although there seems to be less of a negative impact on girls being taught without boys, single-sex boys’ schools don’t seem to be of any benefit to anyone. However, my plans for education mean that schools need to be as uniform as possible and so single-sex schools for either gender should not be allowed to operate in this country.

Step 1: Abolish Private Schools

Step 2: Create a single exam board, run by the government.

Step 3: Abolish Single-Sex Schools

Future steps will be outlined in my blog over the next week so keep checking back.