Regensburg Cathedral School in Bavaria was founded in 975. For a thousand years, it only admitted male pupils. In 2022, it had its first intake of girls. This is part of a worldwide trend in secondary education.

In 2022, Catholic Independent St Kilda’s Boys, founded in 1878, was ‘re-imagined to incorporate its renewed vision’. Another Victorian boys’ school, St Aloysius, is admitting girls from this year, and the latest to announce co-education is Newington College in Sydney – although there has been a major protest against this plan.

There are few single-sex public schools remaining, and the number of independent single-sex schools is declining. Currently, only 7 per cent of students attend single-sex schools, 177 for girls and 127 for boys, around 50 per cent in New South Wales, 25 per cent in Victoria, and 15 per cent in Queensland. What has provoked these changes, and are they necessarily an improvement?

In the distant past, education was only for the wealthy, with private tutors hired for the purpose. Subsequently, boys’ church schools were established during The Reformation. From the 16th Century onward, the Catholic Church set up free elementary schools to provide education for boys of all social classes. In the 1800s, Protestant schools allowed mixed education at the primary level. Subsequently, state-run schools were also established. Up until the 19th Century, secondary education was almost entirely religion-based and single-sex, it remains so today in Muslim countries, (if females are allowed an education at all). England had the honour of establishing the first co-educational senior school. Archbishop Tenison’s Church of England School was founded in 1685, and it remains in operation to this day.

The move to mixed education at secondary level was slow to develop, with the US leading the way. By 1900, almost all high schools in America had changed. The trend has been ongoing in Australia for many years. In 1985, 30 per cent of high schools were single-sex, but this had fallen to 24 per cent by 1995. Current state figures for co-education are 84 per cent in New South Wales, 87 per cent in Victoria, 90 per cent in Queensland, and 100 per cent in Northern Territory. Over the last 50 years, only 2 per cent of new schools have been single-sex and many pre-existing are converting to co-ed, with few single-sex public schools persisting. In Melbourne, for example, there are only 3 public girls’ and one boys’ school remaining, but single-sex private schools are still popular in the inner suburbs. The trend is clear, with many private boys’ schools, even boarding schools, going co-ed, but what is the justification?

Traditionalists like me hark back to the days of schools as a place to learn history and geography, with country, religion, and family at the centre. My education (of many years ago) was at a single-sex boys’ school in the UK. Dulwich College was founded in 1619 by the Shakespearean actor Edward Alleyn as a charity school for 12 orphan paupers, built on his estate in what was then the countryside. The headmasters were all his descendants, and in 1726, the then headmaster James Allen, established a separate school for girls, the second oldest girls’ school in the country. Both persist as single-sex schools.

From a personal perspective as a scholarship boy, I received a free, excellent academic and sporting education. I learned how to make and keep friends, how to be part of a team, the need for self-discipline, and how to apply myself to study. I had limited idea how to approach the opposite sex, but I subsequently managed to complete my further education in that area, with some assistance!

According to modern educators, although not a problem in the past, this is one of the current evils of single-sex schools and a reason for their discontinuance – to avoid ‘hyper-masculine traits’. There have been numerous similar reports in this country from boys’ private schools detailing ‘a toxic brew of privilege, entitlement, expectation, and protection’, or so goes the description from one educational researcher. There is some evidence to support this view, with boys showing improved social skills and better relationships after co-education. This has been confirmed in several countries.

The modern indoctrination of boys about their evil ways is certainly taking its toll. Both educationally and emotionally, school children have been forced to apologise for their ‘white male privilege’. It is no wonder that boys, in particular, are failing at school and the incidence of anxiety and depression is higher than in their female counterparts, with climbing suicide rates as the obvious expression. However, there are concerns that these views may result from the enforcement of the ideology of privilege, with toxic masculinity an often-used phrase. Fashionable changes in education philosophy have not necessarily been associated with improved outcomes.

Problems that are more common in single-sex girls’ schools include eating disorders, such as anorexia, and the current trend of girls identifying as boys. There are no studies, but with both these disorders, there is a pattern of small outbreaks in different schools, suggesting ‘me too’ attention seeking, rather than a general trend. The trans-gender identification is worrying as, at least in this country, it can still lead to early medical intervention and irreversible changes.

With earlier girls’ puberty, (in 1860 it was 16 years, in 1920 it was 14, in 1980 it was 12, currently between 8 and 13), and the sexualisation of the media, school-related sexual activity is likely to increase. Boys too, have advanced, with the US puberty at 9-14, believed to be a result of better nutrition and exercise, also resulting in up to 15 centimetres increase in the average height. With this earlier maturity, there is no clear difference in unwanted pregnancy, between single or same-sex schools, the number of teenage pregnancies fell from 2 per cent in 2008, to 1 per cent in 2018; disturbingly this figure is 5 per cent in the Aboriginal population and 10 per cent in remote communities, figures unrelated to school attendance, (if any).

Part of modern ideology is the buzzword meta-cognition, supposedly allowing critical thinking, teachers become ‘facilitators of child-centred learning, or knowledge navigators’. The introduction of modern teaching methods, with self-learning and flexible learning spaces, has certainly led to a significant decline in educational outcomes. In 2019, an international comparison of 15-year-olds showed us placing 70th out of 77 OECD countries. Students being given ‘independence in class’ has resulted in falling classroom discipline, with bullying, suspensions, and expulsion on the rise.

Another important aspect of the change to coeducation is its effect on learning. The sexes learn differently – boys are more competitive and girls more cooperative – and different approaches were thought necessary to achieve the best results. These different learning styles were assessed in The Alliance of Girls’ Schools study in 2017. It compared single-sex and co-ed schools across a range of subjects. It reviewed the 190 girls’ schools, 34 of which were public, and compared them with boys and co-ed schools. The results for STEM subjects showed mixed results with biology outcomes better in single-sex, chemistry better in mixed, and single-sex boys performed better in physics and maths.

Another study, commissioned by Catholic schools NSW, analysed NAPLAN results and found a ‘modest academic advantage for single-sex schools, with advantage greater for boys’ than girls’ schools’.

For all schools, a common factor over the years has been a general decline in maths ability, particularly for males, with a steady fall in increasingly needed use of IT and software development. Boys are, on average 2 years behind girls in writing skills, and the advantage in maths has been almost completely eclipsed. Statistics for year 3 show 10 per cent of boys and 7 per cent of girls require remedial reading tuition, by year 9, this has deteriorated to 13 per cent and 7 per cent. Further division is apparent at school completion with 84 per cent of girls and 75 per cent of boys finishing. The only area of technological advance appears to be the use of cheating chatbots, both by teachers preparing lessons and students answering them.

Classroom discipline may improve with coeducation, with less attention-seeking behaviour. The study showed less bullying, fewer missed classes, fewer fights, less classroom disruption, and greater self-esteem. One oft-ignored factor is the decline in number of male teachers. Few remain in junior schools because of the threat of accusations of paedophilia. With co-education, the number of male teachers in senior schools will also decline because of potential interaction with opposite-sex students. Is this good for a balanced education?

Independent schools are still perceived as having higher social status, with the students additionally benefiting from greater parental input. This leads on to a higher year 12 completion rate and a higher level of post-school study. Despite these apparent advantages, numbers applying for boys’ schools are in decline and many independents are becoming co-ed to survive. Bums on seats are necessary to provide the modern facilities demanded by parents. Single-sex schools may soon join the list of traditions being cancelled, by cost as much as ideology.

Factors in making a decision include your personal experience, local options, finance, a child’s temperament or career plan, and required educational outcomes. Traditional views that mixed schools provide distraction for pupils, are being overtaken by the modern view that it encourages better behaviour and interaction between the two sexes. With a lack of evidence of educational advantage from co-education, practical considerations are perhaps more important than modern concerns about social interaction.

Underlying the debate, the end product of 12 years of education are adolescents who are increasingly full of entitlement, unmotivated, easily offended, and lacking in work-related skills.