Milkyas Solomon

Single-sex vs Coeducational Schooling: Which Works Better for Girls?: the Case of Girls' Education in Ethiopian Catholic Schools Milkyas Solomon

Over the past three decades, there has been ongoing debate about the advantages of coeducational versus single-sex education for children?s socio-emotional and educational development among scholars. The ongoing debate that failed to come up with a conclusive result in favor of either single sex or coeducation schooling was once again a point of interest in this research. This study was aimed to make the first exploration in Ethiopian context, to substantiate evidences which form of schooling better helped girls to develop in all dimensions. Girls? education in Ethiopia has been tangled with cultural, social, economical and complex gender problems that left the country with 77% illiterate females who are between15-55 years of age. In the primary grades, 17.1% dropout rate coupled with average repletion rate of 7.4% stifled girls? education in 47.8% completion rate at grade 8 at the end of ESDP III. 4. Both single sex and coeducation schooling can be effective in different contexts as long as learning of students and academic excellence is enhanced in equitable way for both boys and girls, based on fairness and justice.