The Usual Place Podcast

Single-sex schools in Singapore: Are they becoming a thing of the past?

Over the last couple of years, several of Singapore’s well-known boys’ schools have opened their doors to girls.

Natasha Ann Zachariah

Several boys’ schools have decided to open their doors to girls, with the latest, Montfort Junior School set to become co-educational, or co-ed, from 2028.

As such announcements become more frequent, why do alumni from these schools have strong feelings about the change and will it be inevitable that single-sex schools may no longer exist in the future?

In this episode, I speak with:

Mary George Cheriyan, a former deputy principal at Raffles Girls’ School (RGS), in charge of the Centre for Pedagogical Research & Learning and Community Engagement. She spent more than 35 years at RGS.
Dr Jason Tan, an associate professor for policy, curriculum and leadership at the National Institute of Education, and
Cherie Tseng, chief operations officer of a fintech company, and a mother of three boys. She sits on two co-ed school boards, and is the president of her secondary school’s alumni board.

We deep dive into whether single-sex schools feeds into gender stereotypes, but also why a quality curriculum and school values matter.

Highlights (click/tap above):

2:20 Why do alumni get upset when their schools go co-ed?

6:59 “It didn’t feel like it was mine anymore.”

10:05 How girls flourish in the single-sex school environment

15:56 Why a school’s history is powerful

17:57 Do single-sex schools reinforce gender stereotypes?

22:00 Finding balance in the school experience

24:00 Less prepared for the real world?

27:22 “Eh bro, that’s really toxic.”

31:34 Focus on quality curriculum

33:07 Shut down single-sex schools with falling enrolment?