Single-sex schools will disappear by 2035, warns education body

It's the longest-running education debate – do single-sex or co-ed schools have the academic edge?

New research from the Australian Council for Educational Research reveals that children at co-ed schools learn at the same speed as, and sometimes even faster than, their peers at boys' and girls' schools.

It comes amid a warning from the council that if current trends continue "there will be no single-sex independent schools in Australia by the year 2035".

Researchers analysed the year 3, 5 and 7 NAPLAN results of girls', boys' and co-ed schools and found that students picked up numeracy skills at a similar rate.

But in reading, students at co-ed schools improved at a faster rate than those in single-sex schools.

"In terms of the compounding influence of being in a single-sex school over time, there appears to be no value-add in numeracy achievement and even a decline in reading achievement over time in single-sex schools compared to coeducational schools," the research said.

Single-sex schools are also becoming less popular, according to the researchers.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data show that the proportion of independent school students at single-sex schools fell from 31 to 24 per cent between 1985 to 1995.

This has continued to fall, with just 12 per cent of children now in a single-sex environment, according to an analysis of My School data.

While the study suggests that single-sex schools have no advantage when it comes to students' academic growth, they continue to outperform co-ed schools in overall achievement.

This might seem contradictory. But while achievement looks at a student's success at one point in time, growth looks at the value added by a school over time.

Growth is increasingly seen as a critical measure of a school's success.

Once adjusted to take into account students' socio-economic backgrounds, boys' schools were one year ahead in numeracy than co-ed schools and one term ahead of girls' schools.

But when it came to reading, girls' schools outperformed boys' and co-ed schools.

Co-ed schools lagged two terms behind boys' schools in year 3 reading and more than a year behind girls-only schools.

This achievement gap shrank as co-ed students progressed through school.

Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia executive officer Loren Bridge said the research reaffirmed that single-sex schools outperformed co-ed schools. She said this advantage was maintained as they moved through school.

"It's also well evidenced that girls' schools provide a better learning environment for girls. Free from gender stereotypes girls are more likely to study STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] subjects and participate in sport, are more confident and assertive and have significantly higher self-esteem," she said.

The research was based on My School data from 55 Australian girls' schools, 33 boys' schools and 2909 co-ed schools.

Most single-sex schools are private schools, while co-ed schools are mostly in the public system.