Pauline Etienne
18 September 2007
Port Louis — The uproar of parents who did not want their children to be with the opposite sex at Nouvelle-France SSS, has finally subsided but still "under protest". However, they could have seen it as an opportunity.
Pupils who benefit from coeducation, like those of Sainte Marie College, are better prepared to socialise with colleagues of the opposite sex at the workplace.
Nouvelle-France SSS will finally be changed into a Mahatma Gandhi Institute secondary school. Hence, boys and girls will have the opportunity to mix together and learn from each other. Despite the protests from parents, pedagogues and teachers who have had the chance of experiencing both systems show their preference for co-education. Some of them even wonder why it could not be extended to more of our local schools.
The debate has been going on for years in the whole world. Even in Britain, for instance, education experts are still confronting their views over the academic results of boys and girls in mixed sex schools. But recently, Alan Smithers, a respected professor of education at Buckingam University, dismissed the argument that single sex schools were superior to mixed schools academically. In any case, the social benefits are so important that they outshine the mere academic results. Local stakeholders in education are adamant about this
The former director of the Mauritius Institute of Education (MIE), Prem Saddul, who is now a freelance teacher at Bocage International School, is "very much in favour of co-education". For him, there is no doubt that "co-education always brings positive results in the field of academic performance and in other developmental areas such as critical thinking and decision-making. Co-education encourages competition in a very friendly and open-minded situation".
Janine Provençal, the head of the fee-paying catholic college, Sainte-Marie, which appears to be a mixed sex school, is even more explicit on this issue. "I believe there is no major difference in terms of academic performance for girls because they are generally quite bookish and work very regularly anyway. However, boys definitely gain a lot from girls being around. It makes a difference to be in a classroom with 35 other boys or to be surrounded with more serious girls. There is a working atmosphere," she pointed out. Moreover, boys' results are improved because they "feel they are in competition with girls and want to do better".
Even if girls do not inevitably take advantage of this situation from an academic point of view, their "attitude to work gains from their contact with boys. The latter have a more relaxed attitude to work and are more open. So it forces girls to become less bookish and have more punch to some extent," reveals Janine Provençal from her three-year experience at Ste Marie College, after working for years in a single-sex school.
Obviously, the advantages pupils derive from mixed-sex schools go well beyond mere academic results. "Learning to coexist with the opposite sex leads to greater understanding and builds self-confidence and above all respect and tolerance among boys and girls. The school is a microcosm of society and learning together will prepare young men and women to later socialise better with colleagues of the opposite sex in the workplace," Prem Saddul asserted.
"Many parents are against mixed-sex schools because they fear excesses this could bring along."
According to what the head of Ste Marie College noticed, "boys and girls grow up in a more balanced way. Girls are definitely less fussy while boys will appear less rough. I mean there is nothing miraculous in coeducation but let's say that it is a better preparation for life afterwards. Without even mentioning the great friendships born here at school".
Both educationists would find it positive to have a bigger number of schools practising co-education. "The question I would like to ask parents who are against mixed secondary schools is whether they would admit their sons or daughters in a single sex tertiary institution in Mauritius or abroad? Do they really exist?" wonders Prem Saddul.
For him, single-sex schools present many disadvantages. "Their perception of the outside world might be a blinkered one, a narrow one, a stereotyped one, a prejudiced one. A closer look at the after-school corridor hangers of shopping malls would reveal that most of them come from single-sex schools."
It appears that many parents who are against their children going to mixed-sex schools are afraid of possible excesses it could bring along. But recent excesses that occurred like porn videos, for instance, were mainly from single-sex schools. "Perhaps the fear is that the age gap 14-16, the puberty age, is considered by many as the 'danger age' and therefore, boys and girls should not be mixed. This is merely a very narrow-minded view of the issue. At this juncture, parental education is what they really need," Prem Saddul commented.
Living close to the opposite sex could on the contrary play down relationships between boys and girls. "Of course, there are many love stories arising at school. I find it quite healthy that boys and girls live their experiences in front of everyone. We are there to make sure they do not go beyond the limits we set. In any case, after school, boys and girls from single sex schools will meetand spend time together. Wouldn't it be normal that they do so at school as well?" Janine Provençal made it clear.
Mixing boys and girls appears as a more "natural" way of educating young people. Just as there is a blend of all cultures so that pupils learn to live and learn together, the "gender blend" should no longer be a taboo. And parents who are proposed this change should see it as a real chance for their wards rather than a calamity.
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