Co-education.

 Q. With changing trends in education like all other aspects, co-education is becoming increasingly common. What do you think are the positive and negative aspects of this development?

Change is inevitable. Life goes through a continuous process of change and education is no exception. In ancient times, women were not allowed to receive education and men were sent to schools called Gurukuls. With the passage of time, education became common and males amd females were sent to different institutions. However, nowadays, co-education is gaining popularity, this refers to the boys and girls studying in common schools and classrooms. In the paragraphs further, I will discuss the positive and negative aspects of this trend.

To begin with, co-education is necessary today and there are numerous reasons for the necessity of co-education. Boys and girls think differently, generally boys are logical and girls are emotional, with regular interaction, a better understanding can be formed between them. Also, it generates a healthy competition between them and there will always be appreciation of perspectives, strengths and weaknesses. Moreover, co-education gives confidence to girls as they are treated as equals. This is of great significance in a patriarchal society like ours and it emphasizes the role of education for women. Another great benefit is that friendship, teamwork and mutual respect develops between both the genders as they are involved in multiple activities together and this makes way for open-minded individuals who can easily adapt to the highly globalised society.

However, there are some demerits of co-education. Attraction towards the opposite gender can hamper concentration of students in studies and they may get involved in unethical activities with each other. Besides this, unnecessary arguments may take place due to difference of opinion and it may create an unhealthy atmosphere resulting in negative feelings for each other.

To sum up, I would like to say that like most other things, co-education has both merits and demerits but merits outnumber the demerits and co-education is very beneficial for the betterment of society.

POINTS TO REMEMBER:

Co-education is studying of girls and boys together // In ancient times, only boys were sent to schools // Later, separate schools were there for boys and girls // Nowadays, Co-education prevails // It has several positives and drawbacks // should be promoted keeping in mind its merits.

VOCABULARY:

Co-education: studying of both genders together // patriarchal: male-dominated // benefit: merit, advantages // drawback: demerit, disadvantage

RELATED QUESTION:

What are the benefits and disadvantages of mixed sex education? Do you think this system is suitable for the kind of culture you live in?