Around a third of the country’s 730 secondary schools are boys or girls-only, along with 17pc of our 3,241 primary schools. Today, attitudes are obviously very different and the Department of Education has not approved a new single-sex school since 1998. While some Irish single-sex schools produce impressive exam results, that may be because they’re concentrated in wealthier areas where parents can give their children special advantages. Some say the Government should be actively encouraging Ireland’s drift away from single-sex schools. Last February an opinion poll for Thejournal.ie found that 58pc of people think single-sex schools should be phased out, 36pc want to keep them and the rest are undecided.

Source: Irish Independent June 03, 2022 09:49 UTC