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3 News maltatoday, SUNDAY, 22 SEPTEMBER 2013 Pembroke girls' secondary opens doors to boys for the first time Various educators have argued that coeducation allows males and females to be better prepared for the real world MIRIAM DALLI WHEN schools open their doors to students for a new scholastic year tomorrow, the girls' secondary school in Pembroke will be welcoming boys, making it Malta's first State co-education school. A decision that was also based on the diminishing population of students, St Clare's College may pave the way not only for mixed-sex education across more colleges but also for the introduction of the 'middle schools' concept. The conversion at St Clare's will be gradual – taking place over a fiveyear period, starting with Form 1. Although the Ministry for Education believes more colleges may take up mixed-sex education policy, the ultimate say will be up to the schools' heads and college principles. The transition of St Clare's to a Miriam Ciappara (left) and Mary Rose Leone co-education system also means that Principal Miriam Ciappara and head Mary Rose Leone have a huge challenge ahead of them: depending on how the school performs, it may attract or push away other schools from taking up the co-education system. "It's a challenge, but we will rise to the occasion. We have taken it with the utmost responsibility and all assistant heads and teachers have been working hard in preparation to welcome our new male students," Leone told MaltaToday. Both Ciappara and Leone admitted that the news for some teachers initially came as a shock. "But then it started slowly sinking in and as we eventually met up with teachers from other co-ed schools, their fears were assuaged." The teachers' preparatory work, which in reality will be an ongoing process, included meetings with teachers from San Andrea and San Anton – two private schools with a mixed-sex education structure. "These schools have shown that boys and girls growing up together look at each other as colleagues," Leone said, noting that during private lessons and extra curricular activities, children and youths would be mixed. According to Ciappara, the teachers are now eager to embark on this new venture. Based on the teachers' own request, the classes will be relatively small. With a total of 160 students starting their first year of secondary school tomorrow, they have been divided into eight classes. Although the students will be together during all lessons, they will be separated during specific lessons of personal social development (PSD) classes and sports. To this effect, two sports teachers, a man and a woman, have been employed. "It is not because we are telling students that certain sports should be for girls or boys only, but it's because the physical strength of the two genders would be different," Ciappara said. The school has also organised icebreaking activities for the new classmates during which the students got to know each other. It was also an opportunity for the teachers to get to know their students. "Students are not numbers but individuals who need our attention. Developing a rapport with our students and showing them we are interested in them helps build a better student body," Ciappara said. The great debate: single-sex education or mixed? According to an opinion penned by Marco Bonnici, senior vice president of the Malta Union of Teachers, there is no straightforward evidence as to whether co-education was more beneficial or whether single-sex education was detrimental for students. However, there appears to be increasing agreement that separating students intensifies gender stereotyping. Oddly enough, while boys and girls share the same classes at primary schools, male and females students are separated in secondary schools and then reunited in Sixth Form. One of the myths that surround mixed-sex education is that pupils may be easily distracted due to their raging hormones. However, professionals who have taught in a co-education system have debunked this myth, arguing that in reality students of either sex learn to fight stereotypes and explore different approaches and perspectives from the point of view of both genders. Various educators have argued that co-education allows males and females to be better prepared for realworld situations, whereas a student that is only familiar with a single-sex setting could be less prepared, nervous, or uneasy. In 2006, educator Desmond Zammit Marmara was already urging State education planners to go for a co-education structure. According to Zammit Marmara, co-education was very effective in challenging sexist attitudes. "In a truly co-educational school, boys and girls participate in all activities, even those usually stereotyped as being either the sole domain of females or of males," he had said. "The curriculum of a co-educational school offers a wider choice of subjects than that in a single-sex school. This offers opportunities to break down the barriers of male and female bastions in particular subjects. At the end of the day, it is society that will benefit if more girls take up science subjects and if more boys take up home economics." Welcoming students in a new environment The summer months were an intensive preparation to convert the girls' secondary school in a co-education facility. The government spent an estimated €500,000 in maintenance and refurbishment works, including the construction of male and female toilets. Workers had to carry out the impressive refurbishing of 846 window, paint the playgrounds, resurface the roads, construct a boundary wall, install synthetic rubber sports flooring and other internal decoration works. Taking the road toward co-education also meant that the library had to be improved and new books bought.