New research data suggests that learning happens better when the sexes are segregated. right across the world, gender specific education institutions are making a comeback. Summiya Yasmeen reports For the trendy metropolitan fast crowd, they may be passé. But if you believed single-sex education institutions were about to become extinct, think again. New research data suggests that learning happens better when the sexes are segregated and right across the world, gender specific education institutions are making a comeback. According to the US-based National Association for Single Sex Public Education (NASSPE) during the past eight years, single-sex public i.e government funded, schools in America have grown from just four to 44 currently, while another 179 co-ed public schools have begun to offer gender-separate options to students. Legislators in the US — the country in the forefront of co-ed schooling worldwide — are obviously doing a re-think about the merits of co-education. They recently amended Title IX of the Education Amendments (1972) “to provide more flexibility for educators to establish single-sex classes and schools at the elementary and secondary levels”. Meanwhile in Britain, the original home of single-sex public (i.e private, exclusive) schools, there are over 289 girls and 185 boys schools. And of the top 20 schools which routinely feature in annual best British schools’ rankings, 18-19 are single-sex institutions. Back home in India where Hindu and Islamic fundamentalism is experiencing a renaissance, there is increasing evidence of a resurgence of single-sex education institutions particularly for women at the tertiary level. According to reliable estimates, the number of women’s colleges in the country has grown from 780 in 1987 to over 1,600 in 2005. India also boasts five all-women universities with the Karnataka Women’s University promoted in Bijapur as recently as August 2003 and a sixth (Bhagat Phool Singh Women’s University) in Sonepat, Haryana all set to admit its first batch of students in 2007. “Gender segregated education is making a comeback not just in India but across the world, because parents and educators are convinced that the academic performance of students is better when the sexes learn separately. In the case of women, single-sex schools, colleges and universities help them achieve not just better grades, but also boost their self-esteem and prepare them to assume leadership roles. There’s growing belief that they provide women — especially in traditional patriarchal societies like India — the opportunity to pursue education which otherwise would be denied to them. In fact they are vital to improving female enrollment in schools and institutions of higher learning. We need more of them,” says Veena Noble Dass, vice-chancellor of Sri Padmavathi Mahila Viswa Vidyalayam, an all-women’s university established in Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh) in 1983, which in early February this year hosted a three-day UGC-sponsored interna-tional conference on the theme ‘Women’s universities: challenges and perspectives’. In secondary school education as well, middle class parents are increasingly opting for single-sex over co-education institutions for their children. Delhi-based Sandeep Dutt, author of Good Schools of India (English Book Depot, 1999) and well-known educationist, says that…
