University of Peshawar

Department of Psychology

SUPERVISED BY:

PROF. DR UZMA GILLANI

RESEARCH MEMBERS:

Arbab Muhammad Babar

Amna zafar

Mahnoor Babar

Saman Yousaf

Shafaq Razzaq

Sumayya Bint -E- Gohar

BS-Psychology
 5th Semester

COMPARISON OF ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SINGLE SEX

SCHOOL STUDENTS WITH CO-EDUCATIONAL SCHOOL
STUDENTS

INTRODUCTION

Education is the most essential factor in the life of an individual therefore, providing its
young generation with good education system remains to be the top priority of any nation.
With the increase in competition for attainment of education and knowledge every nation has
prioritized the provision of best education system and environment to bring out the best in
students and to improve their academic performance.

Any individuals’ journey of official education starts at school, a school is an educational

institution planned to allow learning spaces and learning environment for the purpose of
teaching students under the supervision of teachers. Students generally progress through
different levels of schools. The names of schools differ from nation to nation but generally
involves two categories; one is primary schools which is specifically for young children and
the other is secondary schools which is for teen age students who have completed their
primary education. Higher education is mainly taught in an institution which is commonly
referred to as college or university.

Schools at times may also differ in the quality of education they provide depending on the
economic system that they are based on. Private schools are referred to schools specifically in
private ownership rather than the those based on funds provided by trusts, charities or certain
foundations. They are also referred to as independent schools that are completely independent
in its finances and governance. They do not depend upon national and local government to
finance them. They usually have certain board of governors who are elected independently of
government and have a whole system of governance that ensure their independent operation.
Private schools are also known as non-governmental, privately funded or non-state schools,
which are not supported by local, state or national governments. Privately controlled schools
usually provide better quality of education and are expensive than government schools.
In contrast government schools are those which are run by a sovereign body or government.
These types of schools are possessed by the state and are under the authority of government.
Government schools are built with an aim to provide education to people free of charge.
Mostly students admitted to these schools cannot afford to study in private schools due to
high educational expenses.

Our study deals with two schooling system divided on the basis of gender. Gender-isolated
education or single-gender education, is the system of education associated with separate
classes of male and female students either in the same institute or separate institutes. Before
the twentieth century, the act of single-gender education was a common ritual followed in
secondary and higher education system. Single-sex schooling in numerous societies and
cultures is being conducted because of the traditions and mainly because of religious values.
Contemporarily, there has been a flood of interest and development of single-sex institutions
because of researches in education. In the Western world, single sex schooling is
fundamentally connected with the private schools, with government schools being
overwhelmingly mixed gender; while in the Muslim world the circumstances are opposite:
private schools are mixed gender while numerous government schools are typically single
sex.

Co-education is the schooling system for females and males together. The act of co-education
has been distinctive in various nations. Most elementary schools have been co-educational for
quite a while. There is no inspiration to teach girls separately before the period of
adolescence. Additionally, the educational plan in elementary schools isn't disputable. It
underscores reading, writing, and arithmetic, with some rudimentary information on geology
and history. In certain nations it incorporates some cultural and religious education as well.
Nonetheless, before the mid-nineteenth century, females were commonly taught at home, or
were not educated by any means. On this point, there were extraordinary contrasts in various
bits of the world. In England and Wales, general essential education was set up by the
Elementary Education Act of 1870, and from 5-10 years of age the participation was
necessary in another Act of 1880, this was stretched. From that point forward, practically all
essential education in the UK has been co-educational, and thus it is in numerous different
parts of the world. With secondary education, youngsters experience the cycle of puberty, and
there is no broad arrangement concerning whether the two sexual orientations should be
educated together. There are arguments in for and against of the issue.
In any educational system student progress on the basis of academic performance. Academic
performance is the quantification accomplishments of the student in a particular subject or
course. Usually, teachers make estimation of students’ performance through examining their
grades or how well they have performed in a certain test. Academic performance is also the
degree to which a person has gained knowledge and accomplished his/her set educational
goals in his/her educational life. The skills that are learned by a person till the end of his
educational time period is actually his academic achievement

Our research study entitled ‘comparison of academic performance of single sex school
students with co-educational school students’ addresses the issue as to which education
system proves to be the best at boosting students’ academic performance. This issue is
observed worldwide and opinion seems to be divided. Some favor single sex schooling while
others favor co-educational schooling. Our research is aimed at a sample of students from the
city of Peshawar where often single sex schooling is preferred which has no academic
performance related basis to it rather some religious reasons. Keeping the religious reasons
aside our study focuses on the academic performance of both the single sex school students
and co-educational school students and we will investigate this issue further in our study and
will base our conclusion on data taken from different schools in the city of Peshawar.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Many researches have been conducted so far to find out which education system is better at
improving the academic achievement of students. These researches are reviewed below:

A research conducted by Erin Pahlke, Janet Shibley Hyde and Carlie M. Allison in 2014
compared students from single sex schools with co-educational schools’ students for multiple
outcomes (mathematics performance, mathematic attitudes, science performance, educational
aspirations, self-concept, gender stereotyping). Data from about 184 studies was meta-
analyzed. Studies were divided into two groups (controlled; random assignment or controls
for selection effects and uncontrolled; no control for selection effects, no random assignment)
on the basis of quality of research design. Uncontrolled studies showed some advantages of
single sex schooling both for boys and girls. While controlled studies showed minute
differences between single sex schooling and co-educational schooling on some aspects and
on others showed no difference at all. Some aspects even favored co-educational schooling
over single sex schooling.
Eisenkopf, Hessani, Fischbacher and Ursprung in 2011 directed their study at finding out the
effects of random assignment to co-educational and single sex classes on academic
performance of female high school students. Results favored single sex schools at improving
the performance of female students at mathematics in addition, single sex schooling builds
female student’s self-confidence.

Another study discovered beneficial outcomes related with single-sex schools for both
genders. Single-sex school’s students exhibited higher achievement in academics and
educational yearnings, with impacts commonly higher for girls. Females at single-sex schools
accomplished more home task and selected more math courses, and males going to single-sex
schools took a crack at more math and science courses, than did their partners in co-education
schools (Lee & Bryk, 1986).

A study by Ra'ana Malik and Munawar S. Mirza in 2014 checked the differences in the
academic achievement of students from single sex and co-educational primary schools in
Pakistan. They conducted their study in 8 separate districts of Punjab. About 4448 students
were selected in which 957 were girls (from single sex schools), 943 were boys (from single
sex school) and 2548 students from co-educational schools through multi stage sampling
technique. Their results were based on the previous academic record of the students. Through
ANOVA and t- test their means of the scores were compared. The results confirmed the
hypothesis that students from single sex schools have better performance than students from
co-educational schools.

Another research done by Marlene A Hamilton in 1976 explored the performance level of
adolescents in science and other subjects. Jamaica was the city from where they took the
sample of 94 girls and 84 boys from separate single sex schools, and 88 girls and 71 boys
from the same co-educational school. They applied the Tukeys post hoc test to check the
performance of their sample taken. They came to conclusion that girls from co-education
schools were good at art related subjects while boys performed better in science. Thus,
forming a result that single sex schools’ students are better than their counterparts from co-
education.

A study in Virginia reports comparison of academic performance between segregated and

coeducational fifth grade students. Iowa test of basic skills was used. The results of this study
indicated that girls in segregated classes achieved higher than girls in co-educational classes
while there was no significant difference in boys’ result (Kusam & Claire, 1998).
Another study conducted in Baltimore compares the academic performance and attitudes of
low-income students in single sex versus co-educational high schools. The results indicated
that single sex schools are associated with negative attitudes towards English. The result also
indicates that boys in single sex schools had poor achievement in reading and mathematics
while girls in single sex schools achieved higher in mathematics, science and reading. (Nicole
& Oana, 2015).

Dr. David N.P. Mburu (2013) conducted a study aiming at finding out the effects of the type
of school attended on male and female students’ academic performance. The study used
descriptive research design and two questionnaires for data collection. The research used 231
teachers and 358 students. Descriptive statistics was used in data analysis. The major findings
of the study were that the type of school attended affected students’ academic performance. It
also brought out the various social determinants of gender difference in academic
performance.
Ali Kocak (2019) found out in his study the differences in academic performance of
undergraduate degree Program students coming from single-sex and co-educational schools.
Secondary source data was used for the analysis. Academic records of 8636 students were
used. Both descriptive and inferential analysis were applied. The study brought out the major
differences and concluded that students from single-sex schools achieved higher academic
performance as compared to female students of co-educational schools.

RATIONAL:
Many researches have been conducted on the present topic from worldwide of which a few
are from Pakistan and none from the city of Peshawar therefore, we direct our study towards
a sample from the city of Peshawar. And we intend to find out whether is there any
observable difference in the academic performance of single sex school students and co-
educational school students in Peshawar.

RESEARCH QUESTION:

What is the difference between the academic performance of fifth grade students studying at
private single sex schools and private co-educational schools?

HYPOTHESIS:
The academic performance of students studying in single sex schools is better than students
studying in co-educational schools.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES:

1. To find out what type of education is the best in the interest of students.
2. To know why is a specific type of education better than the other.
3. To state what factors can improve the academic performance of the students.