Why is it Important to Provide Single-sex Education Essay Example

Single-sex education has become increasingly more popular over the years for the many academic benefits. Despite the opinion of those who think co-ed schools are more desirable, single-sex education is beneficial to a student’s education. This is because there are proven higher success rates for women, it enables a setting that moves at the pace of the students and the fact that teaching techniques are geared to a specific gender. 

When a student attends a single-sex school environment, they will more than likely have higher success rates. According to a study by Converse Women’s College, women, “ were two times as likely to earn a Ph.D. or other graduate degree.” The reason for this occurrence is that women are more focused on their education rather than outside distractions, such as romantic feelings towards the opposite sex, harassment, and many other distractions. 

Given the fact that boys and girls develop at different rates, single-sex schools are better inclined to success because if boys develop at a slower rate than most girls, having students in co-ed classes would be holding one gender back and pushing another too hard. In a study conducted by UCLA, researchers found that “boys and girls develop at different rates which produce a difference in their respective academic learning readiness in the early schooling years.” With the fact being that boys develop at a slower pace compared to girls, if they were to be in co-ed classrooms, they would be moving too fast to actually learn anything. On the contrary, if the classroom was to move at a boys pace, the girls would not be challenged enough, slowing down their academic career.

Firstly, single-sex education works best when the teaching techniques are geared towards that specific gender. According to Leonard Sax, author of “Boys Adrift, Girls on the Edge, and Why Gender Matters,” agrees that “merely placing boys in separate classrooms from girls accomplishes little. But single-sex education enhances student success when teachers use techniques geared toward the gender of their students.” This shows that when teaching techniques are geared toward certain genders, students are more pro-active while learning. 

Having become increasingly more popular, single-sex education is more beneficial to a student’s academic career. Nevertheless, single-sex education is beneficial to a student’s academic advances because there are proven higher success rates for women, it provides a controlled learning environment that moves at the pace of the students, and teaching techniques work best when geared toward that specific gender.