What divide is
that? Have you not noticed that best in the league table of schools, the ones
the Education Minister calls the 50 schools in the Country which out of 10,000the parents want to put their children into are ALL single sex schools.
I rest my case
as far as the parents are concerned. I do not know whether this is because they
just happen to be the main schools in Colombo together with the main schools in
some of the larger cities in the Island, that have been endowed with a history
of good teachers and facilities by both the Government, and by the original
benefactors of the schools, be they individuals who built them or Religious
Institutions which set them up. Either way they are some of the older
established and recognized schools in the Country, many extremely large in size
when compared with other schools in the country.
What do the
students prefer? I for one a product of a single sex school, feel that it is
better that way that there is no distraction at the early stages in life for
anything other than studies or sports. Remember all sports anyway are divided
by sex in all spheres including the international ones so that separation is
the norm in that respect. It is also easier for the educators and those in
charge to manage one sex. Just imagine on top of all the issues in schools they
have to manage the interrelationships between males and females within the
schools, that increases the responsibilities and therefore focus on education
and discipline may compromise.
On the other
hand the majority of secondary schools in the country are mixed, as well as the
relatively recent international schools which also produce well rounded and
socially capable youth who end up in the upper echelons of the private sector,
many going overseas for higher studies.
The rural
secondary students usually cannot even contemplate anything other than mixed
schools as that is all they know. They usually have no choice. They go to the
local schools at Montessori, which are mixed, as well as the Primary and
Secondary which are both mixed schools. One outstanding feature in that set up
is that of those who enter university from the mixed rural schools whose
results due to the preference system are generally lower than the better urban
schools, produce over 70% entrants who are female. This observation is
generally not one that is known.
I offer a
challenge with this statistic. It implies that Secondary, O level and A level
system favors women, who either are more conscientious in their studies or are
more mature age for age than their male counterparts, who are able at an
earlier stage to set goals and keep to them. This resulting relative immaturity
of male students is not addressed at the school level, and is just generalized
as the boys being less interested in studies than girls.
That however if
one looks at Royal vs Visakha the two leading and largest secondary schools in
the country the same cannot be said. Is it because the elite of the country both
in pupils and in teachers vie to get in to those schools? Or is it that they
can focus without fear of sexist rivalry to concentrate on getting the results
to get to the next stage?
A disturbing
trait in rural areas is girls who are very young are married off or get married
one way or another, when compared with urban areas. Is this because they get familiar with the
opposite sex at an early stage to form life long liaisons? Is it to prevent a scandal? that pushes them
into marriage which in a few years ends in divorce, or at the very least an
unhappy marriage, where the spouse goes overseas to avoid the problem leaving a
child or children in the care of others, that further results in social
problems.
It is important
to grapple with the issues and find a happy medium to solve this. This problem
is NOT apparent at the Urban International Schools, as they are focused,
through the sacrifice of paying parents on finishing Tertiary Education.
Therefore they will not be pushed into or indulge in a relationships, the
consequences of which are not unfamiliar.
The fact is the
ills of our education system far exceed worrying about whether we should
continue with mixed schools. There is no one advocating converting the single
sex schools into mixed schools as both parents, students and faculty are
generally content with their performance.
Given the fact
that we have mixed schools and that the majority of the students in the this
country have NO choice but to attend such schools, we in the overall plan for
improving the quality of education in Sri Lanka must be mindful of this dimension
and make allowances to make the mixed school model work to the best advantage of
the pupil, using educational tools, that enhance scholarship, competition and focus
on achieving standards that produce the future generation of citizens to contribute
more fully to the economic productivity of the nation.
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