Girls on one side, boys on the other.
The image seems to come from an ancient time, when young women were required to do sewing work while their male counterparts learned Latin, Greek or DIY.
However, there are single-sex classes in France in 2024. Amélie Oudéa-Castéra's sons studied in classes made up exclusively of boys.
The information, noted by Médiapart on Tuesday evening, further fueled the controversy surrounding the new Minister of Education.
But beyond the controversy, the question raises questions.
What are these establishments?
Why do parents decide to send their children to school there?
Does non-mixing have an impact on schooling?
We take stock.
How many are there?
The practice remains in the minority and is mainly carried out by private schools outside of a contract.
“This represents around 100 to 130 establishments outside of contract,” estimates Michel Valadier, president of the Foundation for Schools, which defends the interests of these establishments which have not formed partnerships with the State.
In the private sector under contract, some establishments - such as Stanislas College - practice single-sex education in certain classes.
This would concern around 1% of the nearly 7,500 private establishments under contract, according to the Foundation.
Finally, among the public, only the Legion of Honor school is exclusively reserved for girls.
In France, the practice has been authorized for establishments under contract since 2008, when a relatively unnoticed piece of legislation modified the 1975 legislation which imposed diversity on all establishments.
Why do parents choose to send their children to school there?
“Single-sex is not chosen by Mormons who don’t want boys to see girls!”
», assures Michel Valadier, who ran a single-sex establishment for 20 years from middle school until the end of high school.
“Girls often have a higher level of maturity than boys from the start of middle school.
This allows us to adapt the way of teaching,” he says.
Also read “Benevolence”, “conservatism”, “elite factory”: Stanislas, the school where the children of Oudéa-Castéra go
Separating the sexes at the age of puberty also “makes it easier for boys and girls to concentrate during lessons”, believes this former director.
In the non-contract private Catholic establishment that he managed, separate buildings are reserved for boys and girls who therefore do not meet each other in the canteen or at recess.
Boys and girls follow the same program.
Does single-sex education have an impact on academic results?
The question divides.
In the land of secular, egalitarian and republican schools, the subject is a bit taboo.
No study has therefore been carried out on this educational option.
But this is not the case abroad.
“These are not spectacular results but they show that on average, students perform better in single-sex studies in “gendered” subjects.
In maths and physics, for example, girls are less anxious and perform better when they are among themselves, often with teachers of the same sex.
In the same way, boys are better able to express their emotions in the context of a French course,” explains the sociologist, Marie Duru-Bellat, who bases her book “The Tyranny of Gender” on studies carried out in the United States and Canada.
Michel Valadier noted in his establishment in Pecq (Yvelines) that this worked in favor of boys.
“In mixed classes, the girls are often better, so the boys, in order to stand out and be noticed, do not go to work, they will ridicule the girls who work… Single-sex classes allow them to be taken further,” he assures. he.
Are there any risks?
The sociologist Marie Duru-Bellat would be in favor of the establishment of single-sex moments during schooling, to allow students to evolve free of their “gender role”, but certainly not throughout schooling.
“It would be a big danger because subversively, we would start to reinstate different contents,” warns the sociologist.
“This would reinforce gender stereotypes,” warns education historian Claude Lelièvre.
He also fears a “return to the past”.
Before 1924, secondary school courses (middle school, high school) were in fact different depending on gender.
“The girls did not study Greek, not Latin and did not prepare for the Baccalaureate… There was the idea that studying these subjects could be dangerous because it would develop their ambition beyond their destiny social,” recalls the historian.