Schools face up to the class divide.

(From Yorkshire Post)

Once unfashionable, single-sex education is back on the agenda. Education Correspondent James Reed looks at how Yorkshire schools are tackling the issue.

FOR many years they have been regarded by some as a hangover from a bygone era, slightly detached from modern society.

As traditional male and female roles have blurred, single-sex schools have become a matter of personal choice for parents rather than a question of education policy.

Now, the continuing gap in school test scores and exam results between boys and girls is prompting fresh questions about co-education.

Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman, chairman of the Commons Education and Skills Committee, claims the answer is simple - women are more intelligent - but others think it is more complex.

Then School Standards Minister David Miliband recently entered the debate saying the lessons of single-sex education should be learned and applied in the co-education world.