Boys-only plan sparks a row

Chairman Mao Zedong once proclaimed that "women hold up half the sky." More than 40 years later, some people are worrying that women are holding more than their fair share of the sky and that young men are facing a "masculinity crisis." A battle of words and ideologies has erupted around proposals to establish an all-boys school in Shanghai.

In a pilot program, two single-sex boys classes will be offered this fall at the Shanghai No.8 High School.

The principal of the school, Lu Qisheng, is confident about the program. "Many educators have noted that girls are outperforming boys these days and that some boys are not performing academically or even physically as well. We want to help boys with a special curriculum and educational methods that cater for male personalities," he said.

The domination of girls seems to be putting pressures on their male classmates. Newspaper headlines in Shanghai often note that girls are leading the way at the elite schools in the city.

According to the Xinmin Evening News, last September, the top students at city high schools featured 10 percent more girls than boys. The prestigious Qibao High School last year enrolled 271 girls and 210 boys. In one class at the school less than a third were boys.

Universities are also seeing more girls as students. According to the Xinhua News Agency, girls accounted for a quarter of university students when China resumed college education in 1977.

The percentage of girls rose annually and by 2007 Chinese universities were enrolling 3 percent more girls than boys.

Not all boys are being crybabies about this. Many deny there is a "masculinity crisis" and a few suggest that an all-boys school could encourage femininity. Some people are also concerned that students at an all-boys school could become confused about the sexual orientation.

Former students from the Shanghai No.3 Girls' High School, the only single-sex school in Shanghai, have said they were not hindered by the experience when they mixed with men after they left, but some boys are concerned that the lack of female company for three years at high school could affect them badly.

Other experts say the most important thing a single-sex boys school could achieve would be reforms in teaching and education methods.

Mixed reactions

Although Principal Lu at Shanghai No.8 High School is determined to improve the lot of boy students, not all boys are grateful or supportive of the program.

The school conducted a major survey before proposing the single-sex pilot program, a teacher with the school told the Global Times.

"Most of the students and parents we surveyed were supportive of the idea of changing the school into a single-sex school for boys," she said. However, she refused to disclose exactly how many students and parents had participated in the survey, or which other schools had been involved.

The Global Times put some questions about the project to 14 boys from the Shanghai No.8 High School. Nine of them opposed the idea of changing the school into a single-sex school for boys and said they would refuse to attend an all-boys school; two said that they didn't care and felt there was little difference between single-sex and coeducational schools. Just three supported the plan.

Mao Yuchen, a grade 11 student said: "I am against the all-boys school program because school is a place for study, not a place for experimenting or researching like this. It is irresponsible and the school is totally ignoring the feelings of the students."

Wang Junjie, another grade 11 student doesn't feel he is having a "crisis." "I don't think boys are becoming more feminine as some people say. My friends and I don't feel we need to be helped."

Student Jiang Jinxin said that establishing single-sex schools was a backward step and unsuitable for modern society. "Single-sex schools were first established because of specific social backgrounds. I don't understand why this outdated schooling system needs to be reintroduced."

He said the change could be confusing historically. "Shanghai No.8 High School dates back 150 years and it used to be an all-girls school. It is illogical to turn it into an all-boys school," he said.

Yan Dongyue was one of the few students who supported the change. "There are many famous all-boys schools overseas. There is a good chance all-boys schools could help China produce quality leaders," he said.

A teacher involved in the project at Shanghai No.8 High School said students would not be forced to take part in the pilot scheme.

"The pilot scheme is not compulsory. Students and parents, who are interested in joining the trial, can apply next month," the teacher said.

There will be some advantages for students who join the program. "Students will be interviewed to see if they will be suitable. We will reduce the marks needed for their zhongkao (high school entrance exam) for students who pass our interviews," she said.

Unique and memorable

The former students from the Shanghai No.3 Girls' High School said their experience was unique and memorable even if they were deprived of the companionship of male classmates for three years.

"Any friendships or contact with boys was negligible for the three years. But I don't think that was a problem. For me the presence of boys in school is unnecessary. Without boys around, girls are more relaxed and perform better in class," said 24-year-old Li Xin. "I chose to go to the all-girls school because my math was weak. I didn't like the pressure of having to keep up with the boys. At the all-girls school I was relaxed with science subjects."

Li said that she has heard some weird rumors about her school. "Some people say that girls from my school are either too afraid or too enthusiastic when they encounter men. I have also heard people say that girls from my school became masculine," she said.

"But I don't have difficulties handling friendships with men. I went back to meeting men in college. I don't think losing contact with boys for three years changes much," she said.

Li is a postgraduate student at the Shanghai International Studies University. "Though there are not many male students here, I have made a couple of friends in my sports club," she said.

However, some of the boys said they were reluctant to do without the friendship of girls for three years.

Lu Jiming, a grade 12 student, admitted that he had a girlfriend at school. "Boys become stronger when they are with girls. They compete for girls' affection. Boy could become girlish if they are sent to an all-boys school as the competitiveness is removed," Lu said. "It would be disappointing if he returned to his school one day and found that he was welcomed back just by boys."

"The experience of communicating with girls and maybe having a crush on a girl is very important. Single-sex schools rip these opportunities away. I don't think it is healthy or normal," said Mao Xianchao, a grade 12 male student.

Li Hongyi, a sociologist from Jiangnan University in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, said that the presence of the opposite sex helped adolescents get to know themselves. "It is better for a person to go to a mixed school because it is like the real society where there are men and women. A person gets to compare oneself with the same sex and the opposite sex and learns his or her identity," Li said.

Principal Lu emphasized that school was more important than being just a place which offered a chance for students to have romantic relationships with each other. "Students are not supposed to have relationships at high school. This is the time for students to study and develop their personalities," Lu said.

Though Li Xin feels that the all-girls school made her more confident and elegant, she admitted that some of the girls became aggressive and behaved like men. "When there are no boys to rely on, some girls become more assertive. And the girls who were confident and acted that way were popular with the other girls," she said.

Discussing sexual preferences Li said she had observed some lesbian-like behavior at school. "There was one student who behaved like a boy. Several of the other girls had a crush on her. One used to bring her gifts and made lunches for her."

Another former student from the Shanghai No.3 Girls' School, Wang Xiaohan said she also saw girls developing romantic feelings for each other. "In my class there were girls who became couples. But I think that is normal. Girls in other schools are not that open about their relationships," she said.

Ji Xiaowei, 25, a medical student who was a student at the Shanghai No.8 High School, supported the single-sex class plan. "People who are homosexual are born that way."

An empty gesture

Xiong Bingqi, an education expert at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, thinks the all-boys school pilot may be an empty gesture.

"If the school is not going to reform educational methods and the system is still gaokao (college entrance exam) oriented, there is little point in this," Xiong said.

Most of the syllabus for the all-boys classes will be the same as other schools. The teacher involved in the pilot scheme said because the boys would still have to sit the gaokao, it would be impossible to change much of the curriculum. "But we will emphasize extracurricular activities," she said. "We launched a similar project about 10 years ago. We had an all-boys class and an all-girls class. But we have changed a lot since then and this time we will be assisted by the East China Normal University."

China already has an all-boys school in Beijing and all-boys school programs in Wuxi. The Beijing Huijia Boys High School opened in 2003 amid controversy. The school adopted a military style with students wearing uniforms and being divided into regiments.

The all-boys school pilot program in Wuxi is run by the Wuxi Foreign Language School and another local school and aims at boosting the male psyche. Teachers are encouraged to praise the boys rather than criticizing them.

Another doubter of the program is Wu Zunmin, a professor of education at the East China Normal University, who said that single-sex schools would not solve problems.

"The problems with boys today are not just because of school. They are a result of children being spoiled by female family members within the one-child policy. This has reduced the masculinity of young Chinese males."

There is no evidence that single-sex schools are better. Alan Smither, a researcher in education at the University of Buckingham, found that all-girls schools in Hong Kong did better than coeducational schools, but coeducational schools in Belgium did better than single-sex schools there.

The Institute of Education at the University of London studied 13,000 people born in 1958 and reported that girls from single-sex schools earned 10 percent more than girls from coeducational schools. Men from single-sex schools tended to have a higher divorce rate.

Single-sex schools not so popular

The number of single-sex schools is dropping in many overseas countries though single-sex Muslim schools in Muslim countries are expanding. According to The Observer, in 2006 the number of single-sex state schools in the UK had fallen from nearly 2,500 to just over 400 in 40 years.

Some of the famous English single-sex schools are household names like Eton, Harrow and Rodean, and have produced famous politicians (like Winston Churchill), writers and businessmen.

Many former all-boys schools have started to admit girl students - most of the 250 leading British boys-only schools now accept girl students.

A major British survey found that girls who attended a single-sex school said they were better at math and sciences while boys who attended a single-sex school rated their English abilities higher.

According to Alan Smither, the professor of Education at Buckingham University, 40 percent of people who have had single-sex education want their children to attend a coeducational school.

A report last year in the respected journal Science suggested that there were no discernible advantages for people who attended single-sex schools.