Figure 1.--Most English secondary schools even in the 1950s were still single gender school, especiallyprvate schools. These English boys in 1956 attended an all boys school.

One historic controversy in educaion was the educatiojnal benefits of separating boys and girls or educating them together. This controversy contiinued to this day, although most schools are now coeducational. There continue to be both single-gender schools and coed schools. Coeducation was in most countries first adopted in primary schools and only later in secondary schools. Here there are wide variations between counties and over time. America was one of the first countries to enbrace coeducation. Single gender schools will still very common in most countries the time of World War II (1939-45), however, many countries increasingly turned to coeducation. I am not sure why so many countries began shifting to coeducation at this time. Most American schools were already coeducational, but most European schools, especially the secondary schools were single gender schools. This was especilly the case of private schools. There are state and private schools that were single gender schools. In many countries it was the private chools that were the most resistant to coeducation. While many private schools have now shifted to coeducation, many of the remaining single gender schools are private schools. One exception here is the Islamic world which still has many state oprerated sngle gender schools.

Created: October 17, 2002
Last updated: October 17, 2002