Topic：Single—sexEducationintheUK

The Tory leadership contender Liam Fox claimed that boys should be taught in single-sex schools.（The Guardian，2005）According to his point，the new debate about the merits and drawbacks of single-sex education becoming increasingly intense in the United Kingdom.Boys and girls should be teaching separately in the UK，or not.The establishment and popularity of single-sex education is related to culture，tradition，custom and religion.（Bradley，2009）As people known，single-sex education was very normal，popular and remarkable.Nevertheless，with the development of society and the progress of peoples thought，single-sex education as out-dated and stuffy，therefore，many public schools transfer to co-education gradually after the middle of twentieth century.However，in the latest decade，single-sex school tends to be common and popular again.Nowadays，single-sex education，is a controversial issue in the UK，that people think that there is still inconclusive result about single-sex education.It is a crucial problem，because it related to students study.People want to know which kind educational pattern is benefit for their children.

Despite of the controversy，single-sex education still has merits.Majority parents hoping their children will get better education and have great achievement in the future.Some latest research shows that students who graduate single-sex school are more excellent and have good results in examination than the students graduate from co-education school.（The Telegraph，2009）Therefore，the impact of research，the parents would like to choose single-sex school for their children.

Consider that male and female is different in physical and psychological features，so teaching boy and girl separately is good for cultivating their talents.According to the survey and statistics from International Association for Single Sex Public Education in 2012，the performance of students in their studies will be better reflected in single-sex school.（Gollnick，2012） Firstly，male and female normally have different thought and reaction towards one thing.Therefore，single-sex education system will encourage students developed their curious subjects actively and do it better.For example，in the UK，single-sex education builds girls more confidence in mathematics and sciences，also boys to believe themselves are good at the subjects of English.（Sullivan，2009）

Secondly，academic achievement is the perfect evidence to persuade people about the merits of single-sex education.According to statistics，the students come from single-sex schools，the GCSE（General Certificate Secondary Education） score is better than students from mixed secondaries in the UK.（The Telegraph，2009）Furthermore，the record shows that students from single-sex school have better enrollment percentage to remarkable colleges.There is a very good example of the UK the household boyscollege—Eton College，it is the secondary schools with the highest Oxbridge intake，and Eton College is single-sex school.（The Guardian，2011）

In spite of teaching males and females separately has shown the merits from the figures and surveys.However，some researchers state that the merits of single-sex education have been extremely overstated and it is invalid and misguide as well.This is a multicultural society，each element is crucial to balance the society.So teaching boys and girls separately is too subjective and obeys nature diversity and equality.

First of all，the forceful argument against single-sex education is decreased the chance that boys and girls can study and live together，under a single-sex circumstance，they cannot share and exchange ideas and communicate with each other.（The New York Times，2011）

According to Robinson and Smithers，there is no adequate scientific evidence to prove that the academic achievement of single-sex education is better than the students of co-education.（Robinson，Smithers.，1999）With the sustaining development of human history，the development of scientific subjects is constantly improved and lots of human behaviors have been approved by various objective researches.However，the views of the merits of single-sex education have not been preceded by a range of scientific tests.Consequently，the people who against single-sex education claim that it is misguide to peoples opinion and the survey also shows that merely one third of people accept single-sex school.（Robinson，Smithers.，1999）

According to the research from the magazine Science in the United States，because single-sex education means teaching boys and girls separately，the phenomena of sex-segregation and gender stereotyping have been shown.（The Science，2011） Obviously，these facts lead sex discrimination tend to be obvious and serious.Moreover，in Britain，no one can deny the truth that the heavy expenditure for private single-sex schools.This is the great similarity in two countries about single-sex school.The tuition fee for children registering in private single-sex school is not affordable for every family.

Ultimately，people should take single-sex education into discussion in both the merits and drawbacks，offers useful information and feedbacks to the policy makers.It is not a good idea to criticize the drawbacks or to boost the merit of single-sex education separately.Whatever single-sex education is good for the students or not，it is a sustaining debate of many fields in education.When parents select which better for their children，apart from children.s preference，the authoritative appraisal and policy support are also crucial.

References：

[1]The Guardian（2005）.Fox Calls for Single-sex Education.The Guardian online 3nd July.Available at： http：//www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2005/jul/03/schools.education？INTCMP=SRCH （Accessed 6th November 2012）.

[2]Bradley，K.（2009）.‘An investigation of single-sex education and its impact on academic achievement，discipline referral frequency，and attendance for first and second grade public school studentsDissertation.pp，155-178.Available at： http：//search.proquest.com/docview/305149660（Accessed 26th August 2012）.

[3]The Telegraph（2009）.‘Girlsdo better in single-sex schoolsthe Telegraph（online）18th March.Available at： http：//www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/5008712/Girls-do-better-in-single-sex-schools.html（Accessed 30th October 2012）.

[4]Gollnick，D.et al.（2012）.Multicultural Education in a Pluralistic Society 9th Edition.Pearson Education Press.

[5]Sullivan，A.，（2009）.Academic self-concept，gender and single-sex schooling，British Educational Research Journal，35（2），pp.259-288.Available at： http：//www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01411920802042960（Accessed 30th August 2012）.

[6]The Guardian（2011）.‘How many pupils from your school go to Oxbridge？the Guardian（online）8th July Available at： http：//www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jul/08/school-applications-oxbridge-selection？INTCMP=SRCH（Accessed 29th October 2012）.

[7]The New York Times（2011）.‘Same-sex Education.the New York Times（online）2nd October.Available at： http：//www.nytimes.com/2011/10/03/opinion/same-sex-education.html？ref=singlesexeducation（Accessed 26th August 2012）.

[8]Robinson，P.and Smithers，A（1999）.Should the sexes be separated for secondary education—comparisons of single-sex and co-educational schools？ Research Papers in Education，Vol.14，pp.23-49.（online）Available at： http：//www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/0267152990140103（Accessed 5th November 2012）.

作者简介：王其寓，女，（1987-），贵州贵阳人，英国东安格利亚大学硕士研究生，助教，研究方向：教育学。