Co-education is a system of education in which both men andwomen attend the same institution and classes under the same roof. Co-educationhas a long history from the time of Plato who vehemently advocated this idea tothe present when most of the countries in the world have adopted co-educationsystem. The co-education is very much common in the western world and widelyseen in India as well. In the United States alone except for a few dozensingle-gender institutions all 5,000 colleges/universities are coeds and nobodybothers to call them coeds. It is true that co-education system encouragesstronger sense of competition among boys and girls in the same classroom givingthem more motivation to work towards their goals besides being economical asthe Govt cannot open colleges for girls everywhere. However, there arearguments that co-education causes trouble in the learning process. A separateeducation system for both girls and boys can provide a more structured learningenvironment where attitudes and emotions of the students can remain undercontrol and that it can help students to perform better. The co-education atschool or at the university level is not an issue, however, at the collegelevel it is turning out to be a nuisance.
There are arguments from sensible people that education ismust for both boys and girls but not necessarily in the same classroom or aninstitution. At the school level, there is no reason to educate boys and girlsseparately considering their innocence when they want to play, and learntogether. The problem really starts growing from Matric onwards when boys andgirls enter the period of adolescence. Even then the boys and the girls havenot enough maturity level about the life. They remain under the awe and respectof their parents and teachers. Besides, most of the students remain engrossedpreparing for cracking professional exams. I have vivid memories of the timewhen I was a student of 11-12th class at a co-educational higher secondaryinstitute. The teaching learning process at the institute was excellent; theatmosphere was competitive, full of mental and emotional situations. The boysmost often would do better because of the presence of girls and some girlswanted to show the boys that they are equally smart. The boys would like todraw the attention of girls in the classroom by posing questions to the teacherand vice-versa. No doubt there was a feeling of attraction towards the oppositesex but there was nothing of bad or immoral thoughts in the mind. It was fullwith emotions and that was all natural. Except the day today minor issues, eventoday there is not any kind of serious problem with the system of co-education.