Schools urged to split up boys and girls in lessons

Boys and girls should be taught separately for much of the school day, the Government recommended today.

Single-sex classes in co-educational schools can have a "startling" effect on the performance of both boys and girls, said School Standards Minister David Miliband.

Citing a four-year Cambridge University study, he recommended schools should also consider setting up strict "girl-boy" seating plans for certain mixed-sex lessons.

"We should learn the lessons of single-sex education and apply them in the co-education sector," he said. "These lessons are about recognising the differences between pupils, as well as the similarities.

"We need to recognise that in mixed-sex schools girls and boys can prosper being taught separately for part of the time."

His call came a day after Cynthia Hall, head of the private Girls' Schools Association, warned that female pupils suffered when taught alongside boys.

Debate has raged for years about how to improve boys' exam results and behaviour.

Some commentators believe the "feminisation" of education has put boys at such a disadvantage that the time has come to halt the increase in the number of co-educational schools.

The Government commissioned research from Cambridge University to uncover ways of tackling the bad influence of lad culture. Male pupils lag behind

up to A-level - and may soon fall behind at university for the first time.

Mr Miliband told the GSA's annual conference in Alton Towers, Staffordshire, that the research showed single-sex classes in co-educational schools worked. He said it showed the number of boys who scored five Cs or better at GCSE jumped from 68 per cent in 1997 to 81 per cent this year.

Girls' proportion of five GCSEs at A* to C went up from 68 per cent to 82 per cent over the same period. But Mr Miliband also said there were times when coeducational classes worked well.