Problems with Co-Education

Much has been written both in favor of, and against co-educational institutes in Pakistan. Both the proponents and opponents cite apparently valid arguments to support their view. But if we look from a Western sociological perspective, co-education has been declared as extremely disadvantageous to the female students. Many feminist movements have started an active campaign to get single-sex schools established in large numbers.

So why should co-education be disadvantageous? After all, we have all heard that the school being a miniature form of the society at large, co-education encourages young adults to learn how to interact, much as they would do in the wider society. Co-education also helps, according to its proponents, to inculcate confidence and self-esteem in students as they engage in healthy interaction in classes and extra-curricular activities. Ask these proponents about any moral problems whatsoever. Their answer is that it all depends on you, as an individual, as to how you choose to interact with the opposite sex.

But now, if you examine the Western sociologists and what they have discovered through their research, their studies more or less negate the positive aspects of co-education. In fact, the increasing achievement level of female students has been attributed to the increase in single-sex classes. Single-sex classes along with a female teacher, provides a positive role model for the students, not only in traditionally female-dominated subjects like humanities, but also in subjects like science and engineering. The latter subjects, which were traditionally considered as ‘male domains,’ are now being characterized by increasing female achievement levels. Single-sex classes increase the confidence of female student, according to this interpretation, and results in a more positive attitude to science and technology subjects.

Moving on to the study of individual sociologists, the most notable one is that of Michelle Stanworth, who carried out her study “Gender and Schooling” of A’Level classes. She discovered that interaction in the classroom affected the female students in a very negative way: they got less attention of the teachers, were discouraged from class participation and lacked self-esteem considerably. Her conclusion of girls getting less attention was determined by interviews with teachers. When asked about whom they give the most attention to, the teachers named a male student two and a half times as often as a female student. Most of the teachers felt that it was much more difficult to remember the names of the female students of the class. Discouragement in class participation was determined through the response of the pupils who reported that the male students were four times more likely to join a class discussion, twice as likely to seek help from the teacher and twice as likely to be asked questions. And finally, girls’ underestimation of their ability was discovered when the pupils were asked to rank themselves in terms of their ability, and teachers were asked to rank their students accordingly. In 19 out of 24 cases in which there was a discrepancy between the two rankings, girls had placed themselves lower than their teacher’s estimate and all but one boy placed themselves higher than the teacher’s rank.

Another sociologist, Dale Spender has argued in her book “Invisible Women” that the female students get less attention than male students in the classroom. Spender taped some of the classes she took, in which she tried to divide her time equally between the male and female students. She discovered, however, she only spent 38% of her whole time in interacting with the female students. After a further study, she observed that the female students have to wait for a longer time before they receive any attention from the teacher. Also, the attitude of the male students towards the female student is extremely degrading. She found that the male students tended to insult and abuse the female students. They also had a very dismissive attitude towards them if they took any part in class discussions. Spender concludes that the female students, who come out of such educational systems, tend to be submissive and docile in their later lives, who accept male domination without question.

Allison Kelly’s study “Science for Girls” was mainly focused on why science subjects were considered as male domains and she discovered that the female students are disadvantaged in the science classes, which leads them to study arts and humanities instead. In the science classes, she observed, teachers tended to use examples which were more familiar to the male students. The latter also had the tendency to hog the scientific apparatus and shout answers to the questions asked to the class in general. Similarly, Culley’s study of computing classes concluded that the male students monopolized the computers and created an uncomfortable environment for the female students.

An article by Grenville Phillips entitled “Co-education in the Balance” looks at an alternative point of view in opposing co-education. It argues that the brains of the males and females develop differently. Certain psychological experiments indicate that the left side of the brain is characterized by rationality, and the right side of the brain is characterized by emotions. In females, there is an intact connection between the left and ride sides of the brain, while in males, the connection is broken. Hence, female students are more productive in the sense that they can pay attention to many aspects of their education simultaneously, while the male students can only concentrate on one aspect at a time. This difference in ability of learning can have an impact in mixed-sex classes. One subject can only be taught in one way, so which way is it going to be? One which works for the female students or one which works for the male students?

The above mentioned studies do point towards the fact that mixed-sex classrooms are disadvantaging female students in many ways. Of course the above studies have been heavily criticized as well. But one cannot ignore the fact that if the wider society is characterized by patriarchal relations, such relations tend to reflect themselves in the classroom as well which, as I said in the beginning, is considered as a miniature form of the society as a whole. Can we expect our new generation of female students to be independent and self-assured, if they are a product of such co-educational classrooms/schools? Food for thought.