0502读《经济学人》英格兰单性别学校招生好困难（含文稿）

England’ssingle-sex schools are struggling to recruit pupils 英格兰的单性别学校在面临着招生困难

Until the 1960s直到上世界60年代virtually几乎all children went to single-sex schools. Today only 6% do.

There was a big move towards mixed schoolingwith the introduction of comprehensive (ie, non-selective) secondary education（高中教育）,which offered a chance to reorganise the school system along more egalitarian  [ɪ.ɡælɪ'teriən]主张人人平等的

 lines.In the aftermath之后呢, the number of single-sex schools continued todecline.

The trend shows no signs of stopping. In 2010542,125 pupils in England attended a single-sex school. Now just 509,910, or6%, of pupils do. And although the shift has been fastest in the privatesector, where schools have little choice but to respond to market incentives,it is noticeable in the state sector, too. Altogether 889 single-sex schoolsremain, a narrow majority勉强超过半数 of them funded by the state.

The decline is not for want of support ineducation circles教育界. Those in favour argue that single-sex schoolsallow pupils to flourish, free from the distracting influence of the oppositesex. Last year Amanda Spielman, the chief inspector of schools学校的总督察,wrote a defence of girls’ schools为女校写了辩护. She argued that they helpedwomen “take their full place（＊take one’s place得到应有的社会地位） in aworld which is, to some degree, loaded against them.”

The trend away from single-sex education ismostly driven by boys’ schools, which like the better exam results provided byfemale pupils, as well as the opportunity to double the size of their market.Girls’ schools then have little choice but to follow suit跟风.

Single-sex schools are unlikely to die out.Many are adapting to new circumstances. In Bristol and Newcastle, small girls’schools have merged to form more viable institutions切实可行的机构. And those single-sex schools that remain tend to be well run,meaning they frequently play a central role in “chains” of schools run bynon-profit organisations, says Sue Higgins of the Association of State Girls’Schools.

But the remaining ones look increasinglyodd in a school system that is overwhelmingly comprehensive and co-educational男女同校. As Mr Smithers notes, a widespread emphasis on equality meansthat it becomes harder and harder “to sustain the argument that children haveto be separate to be equal.”