A long-established education institution in Australia has announced that it will be scrapping its single-sex education system. Barker College, an all-boys boarding school that was built in Sydney since 1890, is going fully co-ed by 2022. It has partially introduced co-ed classes in 1975 and 2000 for Years 10, 11 and 12 students only.
The announcement that Barker College is going fully co-ed has brought about concerns that the single-sex education system dying. Is there no more future of all-girls or all-boys schools to exist?
"The world is not going to be defined by gender anymore," Barker College's principal Phillip Heath said, according to Sydney Morning Herald. The principal also believes that it would be shameful to continue to uphold single-sex education when gender equality is being demanded by society today. In fact, it could hold back the students and limit their understanding of the world, rather than benefitting from such an exclusive education.
A study conducted by the Australian Psychological Society points out that single-sex education promotes gender bias. Researcher Professor Diane Halpern notes that 1.5 million current students do not see the benefits of attending single-sex schools, especially when they will end up working in segregated environments after graduating.
Halpern also stressed that what's far more important is for schools to teach its students "how to interact cooperatively and competitively" and shun the notion that boys and girls learn things differently. An all-boys or all-girls exclusive education thus defeats teaching gender equality. Students under single-sex education might not be able to have a better understanding of how boys and girls can outshine each other in different areas, regardless of their gender.
In the United States, single-sex education institutions still exist. Some schools, however, have adapted curriculums that should help narrow down the gender gap.
For instance, at the Girls Academic Leadership Academy based in Los Angeles, emphasis is given on STEM courses that taps the interest of female students on science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The Girls Athletic Leadership School in San Fernando Valley, on the other hand, puts emphasis on athletics. Both STEM and athletics are traditionally believed to be a male-dominated arena, The Atlantic reports.
