Most teens at same-sex schools would prefer co-ed

A majority of teenagers attending single-sex schools would prefer their school to be co-educational, a study by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has found.

In a survey, one third of students attending single-sex schools said they would “strongly prefer” their school to be co-educational, while a further 30% said they would “prefer” it to be.

The ESRI has described the findings as “eye-opening”.

The student survey was part of broader research into what are known as voluntary secondary schools, which was commissioned by the sector.

The research comprised of surveys and focus groups and was conducted across 21 such schools – most of which were single-sex, with a total of 2,243 teenagers surveyed.

The study found girls more likely to favour mixed schools, with 86% believing that they are “better”, compared to 77% of boys.

However it also found that 44% of girls, particularly those attending single-sex schools, considered single-sex education “better” in terms of their academic development.

The ESRI researchers said the scale of the preference expressed by students for co-education came as “a surprise” to them.

When asked whether or not they would prefer for all schools to be mostly or all co-educational, 61% of students surveyed said they would prefer that.

Schools in the so-called voluntary education sector are mostly religious-run, by trusts that were established to take over the role previously fulfilled directly by religious congregations.

A total of 90% of voluntary secondary schools have a Catholic ethos. The voluntary sector is home to almost all of the country’s single-sex schools.

The 21 schools in question were chosen to reflect the sector’s diversity in terms of region, gender mix, size and social mix.

Ireland is second only to Malta in its proportion of single-sex schools.

One third of second-level students here attend single-sex schools but that proportion is shrinking as more schools opt to become co-educational.

This week a Dublin Catholic girls’ school, St Joseph of Cluny in Killiney, became the latest to announce that it will admit boys from September 2025.

The fee-charging school said it was doing so in order to “meet the demands of families and wider society”.

When asked by the ESRI why they favoured a co-educational setting, by far the strongest reason, given by 764 students who responded, was the benefits of mixed socialisation.

More than 200 teenagers cited better preparation for their future lives.

“Negative views of single-sex schools included the perception that such an environment had an adverse impact on young people’s socialisation, that it could be toxic and that it was an outdated and/or unnatural approach to education,” the study found, adding that “several students also noted the difficulties single-sex schools posed to transgender students”.

Among the minority who favoured single-sex schools, 74 cited a view that academic achievement was stronger in those schools, and 42 respondents cited “distraction” as their reason for not preferring a mixed environment.

The study found students highlighted “perceived gender differences in terms of how boys and girls behave, socialise and learn”.

“Girls were said to benefit boys by calming them and encouraging academic engagement, while boys were said to benefit girls by creating a less pressurised environment, academically and socially,” the report said.

The report stated that some students highlighted religion in their schools as “a malign influence, instrumental in creating and maintaining single-sex schools”.

For others however, “single-sex schools were positively perceived as according with students’ religious beliefs”.

Of those surveyed, 54% were girls, 44% boys, and 2% identified as non-binary/other. 43% attended girls schools, 30% went to boys schools, and 27% were enrolled in mixed voluntary schools.

‘Mismatch’ between students and principals

While the majority of students in every school surveyed preferred co-educational education, the report found more mixed views among staff, parents and other stakeholders.

“The results show a mismatch between the attitudes of students and principals,” the report found.

“They also highlight a tension between the purported importance of student voice in schools’ ethos and the fact that an apparently strong preference among students for their school to be co-educational has not led to any change in the gender makeup of schools,” the report stated.

The study illustrated this tension by contrasting the comment of the school principal of one all-girls school with survey results from that school’s students.

The principal told researchers: “There is no appetite for it here. I’m not hearing students saying to me that they want to be in a mixed school.”

However in that same school, 72% of students stated in the survey that they would prefer their school to be co-educational. Just 11% actively wanted it to remain single-sex.

Noting that “teachers and school leaders in many of these schools emphasised the student-centred nature of their ethos and their commitment to the student voice”, the report went on to state “it might be timely to put those principles into practice”.

The study aims to present a record of opinions and experiences around school gender mix “in order to inform policy and second level decision making at an important time in the development of the Irish school system,” the report stated.