Of girls, boys, schools and schooling

It is well known that behind every successful man there is a woman. Sometimes one also hears that behind every failed man there are many women. Our goal today then is to take these pearls of wisdom to a preceding stage — the age of boys and girls and see what we know about performance in schools vis-à-vis these statements.

Although it has been a while now, we still recall those days when we were both leaving home for the first time to pursue higher education. Among the many tearful farewells, one constant refrain was stay away from alcohol, drugs and girls — as if they were all (equally) bad for you!

We are sure girls leaving home for the hostel were given a similar sort of advice — at least that is what the girls we did not stay away from told us.

In fact this fear was so deeply ingrained in the minds of Indian parents, that many of them, especially the more conservative ones would send their children only to same sex schools.

Of course this trend has not completely disappeared today, partly also due to the fact that many of these same sex schools have a well-deserved reputation for academic excellence.

Parental concerns notwithstanding, possibly the biggest advantage of a co-ed school is that it promotes mutual understanding between the sexes. It may be especially important in primary schools where children first have the opportunity to interact with children of the opposite gender allowing for the development of mutual respect.

These effects are also believed to be long-lasting. Those educated in single-sex schools may hesitate in interacting and working with individuals of the opposite sex, a skill which is crucial for success in life after school! In fact as we recently found out this skill is important even if you are a Nobel Prize winner.

Studies have also touted other benefits of the co-education system like lower divorce rates.

Regarding academic performance, the co-ed system has both its supporters and opponents. Those opposed, typically argue that teenage hormones and the opposite sex do not mix very well. Those in favour suggest that the desire to impress others can be a very powerful motivator indeed.

Studies suggest that in sum, the positive affects actually outweigh the negative effects. A recent study using controlled elements found that a greater number of girls in the classroom improves the academic performance of both boys and girls. Moreover, this effect holds at all school levels — primary, middle and high school.

Quite possibly this is because girls perform better than boys academically. There seems to be mounting worldwide evidence in favour of this according to an article in The Economist earlier this year. Closer home recall that the first four positions in this year’s UPSC exam went to girls.

Schools and colleges are amongst the best places to make friends and the friendships forged here typically last a lifetime. An individual’s friends can impact his/her performance and success since friends influence our actions (hence parents constantly try to influence the choice of friends and also keep judging their children’s friends). In academic jargon this influence of friends is referred to as peer effects.

So let us move from the macro or school level to the micro level and ask: Does the gender-composition of a student’s friends in school affect their classroom achievement? Or in technical terms how does the gender-composition of one’s peers affect academic performance?

In a recently published paper in the American Economic Journal , Andrew Hill finds evidence that a student’s share of opposite gender school friends impacts high school grade negatively! Moreover, the effect is stronger for females than males.

Interestingly, the effect is stronger for students older than 16, whose grades are negatively affected in all subjects. For younger students, the effect is limited to the courses which are considered to be important — maths and science.

Keep in mind of course that the study only focused on students in co-ed schools by taking into account the share of their friends that were of the opposite gender.

Interestingly the study also suggests that one of the important reasons behind this outcome is the increased probability of romantic relationships, especially for the students older than 16. Students in the relationship are more likely to be distracted in the classroom and may be substituting time away from studying and doing homework. There is, however, a silver lining to this, at least for some: those with a greater share of opposite sex friends are more likely to get married!

The research also sheds light on the potential mechanisms that may be responsible for the lower academic performance. A student’s share of opposite gender friends turns out to be positively correlated with the difficulty a student faces in concentrating in class and getting along with the teacher. This, it turns out, has a strong effect on academic performance.

The proposed mechanism is not altogether surprising as most of us will recall from personal experience. In fact, every student we know (and that includes us) works harder in their favourite teacher’s class.

The moral of our story is not to suggest that you should not have friends of the opposite sex, especially in a professional setting. Good friends of either sex are important in life. They are important for finding jobs, mates, bitching about horrible bosses and just having a good time in general.

In other words, the workplace is not the zone of hormonal teenagers, rather it is the domain of mature adults. Unless of course you continue to behave like an immature school kid as Tim Hunt, the 2001 Nobel laureate in medicine recently found out.

He flippantly observed at the World Conference of Journalists, “Let me tell you about the trouble with girls. You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticise them, they cry!”

The statement created a huge uproar — Hunt was vehemently criticised for being a sexist, lost his job and quite a bit of his academic reputation. No Professor Hunt, you cannot blame another person for your own actions.

In fact, as long as you act maturely and take responsibility for your own actions having friends of the opposite sex is a rewarding experience. Guess you probably already know this if you went to a co-ed school!

Sarangi teaches economics at Virginia Tech. Jha teaches economics at LeMoyne College, Syracuse, USA