Newington is not the only prestigious boys school to open enrolments to girls. This debate is not a new one. What is the history behind the single-sex vs co-ed divide? And why does it spark so much emotion? Schools like Newington were set up at a time when the curriculum and social worlds for upper-class boys and girls were often quite different. Boys and girls were thought to require different forms of education for their intellectual and moral development.
In the s, the colony of Victoria introduced a policy of coeducation for all government-run schools. So schools were often organised to minimise contact between boys and girls even when they shared a classroom. Other colonies followed suit. The main reason the various Australian governments decided to educate boys and girls together was financial. It was always cheaper, especially in regional and rural areas, to build one school than two.
So most government schools across Australia were established to enrol both girls and boys. One notable exception was New South Wales, which set up a handful of single-sex public high schools in the s. These were intended to provide an alternative to single-sex private secondary schools. At that time, education authorities did not believe parents would agree to enrol their children in mixed high schools.
Historically, coeducation has been more controversial for older students, but less so for students in their primary years. By the s, many education experts were arguing coeducation was better for social development than single-sex schooling. This was at a time of national expansion of secondary schooling in Australia and new psychological theories about adolescents.
In following decades, further debates emerged. A feminist reassessment in the s argued girls were sidelined in co-ed classes. This view was in turn challenged during the s , with claims girls were outstripping boys academically and boys were being left behind in co-ed environments. There is no conclusive evidence that one type of schooling co-ed or single sex yields better academic outcomes than the other. Schools are complex and diverse settings.
