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Single-Sex Schools

Submitted by Alon Levy on June 25, 2006 - 6:52pm.

Education

I know I haven't made good on my promise for heavy Singapore-bashing, but here's one teaser: single-sex schools perform no better than coed ones, despite a persistent myth that having boys around distracts girls and hurts their academic performance.

In Singapore this myth is official government policy, and up to and including tenth grade, most schools are single-sex. The government commonly appeals to fraudulent studies and myths to support authoritarian policies, framing itself in opposition to idealism and feel-good politics. But pragmatism is often a veneer for despicable, unjustifiable positions, and this case, both in Singapore and elsewhere, is a good example of it.

Ultimately single-sex schools are not about improving girls' performance any more than abstinence-only education is about reducing the risk of STIs. Both are equally about sexually repressing teens and children, and covering it up in pseudo-realist language.

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