GENDER:THERE IS no scientific justification for deciding to educate boys and girls in separate schools based on supposed differences between the male and female brain.
The two perform more or less the same in youth, so citing brain differences is no reason to support single-sex schools, a study has found.
Groups in the US have long lobbied for single-sex education, citing claims that there are fundamental physiological differences between male and female brains.
However, this is not true, according to research from the Chicago Medical School at the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in the US.
There are no “profound differences” between boys and girls, although differences do emerge later in life. Their brains learn and react in much the same way, so brain function is no reason to support single-sex education, they write in the journal Sex Roles.
The Chicago group looked at seven brain differences often used by groups such as the US National Association for Single Sex Public Education to argue in favour of single-sex schools. Some relate to language, vision and hearing centres in the brain.
The researchers dismissed them all, however, leading them to raise the issue of “scientific misrepresentation” by the lobbies.
Ireland does see male-female differences in examination results, however, with a significant gender gap opening up in Junior and Leaving Cert points scores. Girls consistently outscore the boys, with higher points yields and a higher proportion of top grades.
Ireland also has one of the highest participation rates in Europe for single-sex schools, even though these schools are in the minority, but no studies strongly link the two.
Studies looking at performance in single-sex versus mixed-sex schools in Britain are not conclusive.