The advantage and disadvantage of co-education and single sex Essay

The advantage and disadvantage of co-education and single sex education - Essay Example Despite co-education having several advantages, single sex education is the best in some areas and at certain times. Therefore, both co-education and single sex education have limitations as well as depicting strengths. The proponents of co-education attribute it to the development of social skills. Single sex education is faulted for limiting the interactions between the students hence they are unable to fully develop their social skills especially with the opposite sex (Bali, 2012). This means that the students that are under the co-education are able to develop skills that will enable them to understand the opposite gender. In addition, the students are able to break their shyness hence they freely interact with the opposite sex. This boils down to the family, where a child that was exposed to the opposite gender will have a better chance of getting a mate, as well as having the skills to relate with one another. According to Collins (2012), social interactions begin at infant schools where the children are able to establish relations with both sexes. Single sex education system ensures that sex-related distractions are minimized. Boys will give some attention to girls and vice versa especially during the adolescence (Ahmad, 2012). This can be detrimental to learning since time is likely to be lost in the process. This occurs when boys and girls study in the same institution as opposed to single sex education system. Co-education facilitates the diversion of the students’ attention from schoolwork to sexual-related thoughts and attractiveness. Some of the struggles in a co-education system include the perception by the opposite gender, immature romance, and boy-girl crushes among others. In terms of academic performance, students from single sex education system do well as opposed to co-education schools. A research by Australian Council of