Chapter – 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND

Education is very important for an individual's success in life and as will for development of the
society. Education provides knowledge, skills to individuals that prepare them physically,
mentally and socially for the work of world in later life. Education is generally seen as the
foundation of society which brings economic wealth, social prosperity and political stability.
Education is major aspect of development of any modern society since if there is a deficit of
educated people then society will stops its further progress. Education is right of every human
without any discrimination however the method/ system still is debated issue; how to educate the
people jointly or separately both the challenger push their arguments.

The concept of joint or separate education has spanned across civilizations. There are both
proponents and opponents for educating girls and boys separately and for educating girls and
boys together. Historians have documented that woman’s intellect was considered inferior to
men and extensive learning for women was deemed inexpedient and dangerous (Nygren,
Nissinen, Hämäläinen, & De Wever, 2019). As such, the literacy rate of women was well behind
that of men. In Rome, the royal and the upper class females enjoyed private tutors; however,
illiteracy for the vast majority of females was the norm.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the improvement in female literacy had developed in
response to a felt need to read and write. Two major developments encouraged wider literacy,
which extended to the female population. The first major development, which had a significant
impact on education for girls, was the Reformation, which encouraged believers to read the
Bible. Protestant women who were thought to need to read the ceremonial reading of sacred texts
were taught rudimentary reading skills. The next development was the commercial revolution.
During this time, while girls were learning to read on a reasonably large scale for the first time,
their brothers were encouraged to learn to write as well as to read; reading and writing were both
an emblem of and a means to power (Nuraeni, 2020).

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Literacy slowly rose in the early modern period, and not at the same rate for each class and each
sex within each class. Overall, however, the Reformation era had a significant impact on
Education for both boys and girls, with the roots of universal, compulsory education being.
Planted in this period (Abraham & Barker, 2018). A few Grammar schools for girls were
established and taught by women, however women were prohibited from studied with boys but
when Christianity lost its value and secularity and enlightenment occur in Europe then the
concept of coeducation was emerge and single sex educational institutions converted to
coeducation.

Co-education means the education of boys and girls in the same schools, colleges or universities.
This is a modern concept and it has made a remarkable rapid progress. It was first introduced in
Switzerland. In England the first public coeducational boarding school was Bedales School
founded in 1893 by John Haden Badley and The Scottish Dollar Academy also claims to be the
first coeducational boarding school in the UK (in 1818) while The first co-educational
institution of higher education in the United States was Franklin College in Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, established in 1787 . Now it has become popular almost in the whole of Europe
and the whole of America and Asia adopting this system gradually.
The growing trend towards coeducation in many countries prompted by social and economic
considerations (Schmidt, 2019) and (Kombe, Che, & Bridges, 2019). The supporters of
coeducation favor it mainly on two grounds, one economical and the other sociological. In the
first place, they say that co-education is an economical measure in a poor country like Pakistan.
It is not possible to maintain separate colleges for boys and girls. Pakistan is one of the many
Muslim countries where most schools and colleges are single-gender although some schools and
colleges, and most universities are coeducational. In schools that offer O levels and A levels, co-
education is quite prevalent. After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, most universities were
coeducational but the proportion of women was less than 5%. After the Islamization policies in
the early 1980s, the government established Women's colleges and Women's universities to
promote education among women who were hesitant to study in mixed-sex environment. Today,
however, most universities and a large number of schools in urban areas are co-educational
(Yasin, Azim, & Qayyum, 2020).

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In the case of Pashtun girls in particular, there is almost no detailed gender relations analysis at
local, national or international level, precisely because they are a most restricted and unheard
segment of society (Khalid, Ali, Quraishi, & Aziz, 2020). There are many restrictions on a
pashtun girl which make it difficult for her to go to higher studies. There are many reasons
behind these restrictions one of them is co-education in higher studies. The enrolment ratio of
women in higher education institutes in Pakistan is very low. Only 5.1 percent of the students
aged 17-23 avail the opportunity of reading at universities and women comprise 2.5 percent of it
(Bangash & Muhammad, 2019). If female are properly educated alongside men, it can be hoped
that other discrimination with female will automatically end.

In the second place, the social contacts between the members of the two sexes are useful in many
aspects. The supporters of co-education say that if boys and girls are educated together, they will
develop in them a sort of mutual understanding. This understanding will be helpful in their future
lives as men and women. Moreover, it creates a spirit of competition in studies. Both try their
hardest to out-do each other and also educational opportunities open to women ought to be
equivalent to those available to men, and coeducation came to be seen as the most direct and
practical road to achieving such equity.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The question is that how to educate people, throughout the history single sex education is a
norm, however the new phenomena of education has been practiced known by co-education to
bring Gender equality but Co-educational environment often has negative effects both on society
and students.

Today, co-education is prevalent in almost all the countries of the world. In Pakistan there are
also number of co-educational schools, colleges and universities but it is rarely practices
particularly in Pashtun society where the role of custom and tradition is dominant. In Pashtun
society opinions sharply differ on the issue of coeducation, opponents of Coeducation protested
on socio-religious and moral grounds.
They were of the opinion that socio- cultural setup does allow free mixing of opposite sexes,
people does allow boys and especially girls study together in same institutions therefore boys and
girls are sent to separate schools and colleges. Social mixing of boys and girls is not allowed in

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Pashtun social structure. This is considered essential to maintain the purity of character in them
and parents avoid their self from social stigma, they believe that there is no guarantee to safe the
purity and honor of both sexes in co-ed environment. They considered that co-education is
against the values and norms of the Pashtun culture.

The research tries to describe the opinion of the community regarding coeducation on socio-
religious perspectives and also take step to explore the consequences of coeducation on students’
personality and the whole society.

1.3 TYPES OF EDUCATION

In educational literature, the study of alternative education systems often mentions “open
systems”, “non-formal education”, “distance learning”, “non-conventional studies”, among other
terms. In some cases these are employed as synonyms, whereas in others, there is no agreement
as to their meanings, making it impossible to reach a consensus for their concepts. A more
precise definition of such concepts is fundamental, as is their possible classification, aimed at
better understanding and practical utilization. We shall therefore analyze the concepts of formal,
non-formal and informal education, in an attempt to define their features, advantages, limitations
and inter-relations.

1.5.1 FORMAL EDUCATION

Formal education corresponds to a systematic, organized education model, structured and

administered according to a given set of laws and norms, presenting a rather rigid curriculum as
regards objectives, content and methodology.

1.5.2 NON-FORMAL EDUCATION

As seen, formal education has a well-defined set of features. Whenever one or more of these is
absent, we may safely state that the educational process has acquired non-formal features.
Therefore, if a given education system is not present most of the time - non-contiguous
communication - we may say that it has non-formal education features. Likewise, non-formal
education characteristics are found when the adopted strategy does not require student
attendance, decreasing the contacts between teacher and student and most activities take place
outside the institution - as for instance, home reading and paperwork.

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1.5.3 INFORMAL EDUCATION

Informal education is quite diverse from formal education and, particularly, from non-formal
education, although in certain cases it is capable of maintaining a close relationship with both. It
does not correspond to an organized and systematic view of education; informal education does
not necessarily include the objectives and subjects usually encompassed by the traditional
curricula. It is aimed at students as much as at the public at large and imposes no obligations
whatever their nature. There generally being no control over the performed activities, informal
education does not of necessity regard the providing of degrees or diplomas; it merely
supplements both formal and non-formal education.

1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS

This thesis comprises the following sequence of chapters given as under.

 Chapter one is introduction composed of background of the study, and objectives of the
study, significance of the study.
 Chapter two is composed of literature review.
 Chapter three consists of methods and procedures are composed of research
methodology. Sampling method and procedure, method of data collection, tools of data
collection, duration of the study and pre testing.
 Chapter four is consists of data analysis in form of tables.
 Chapter five consists of findings, conclusion and recommendations.

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References

Abraham, J., & Barker, K. (2018). Motivation and Engagement with Physics: a Comparative Study of
Females in Single-Sex and Co-educational Classrooms. Research in Science Education, 1-16.
Bangash, A. K., & Muhammad, R. (2019). SOCIO-CULTURALPROBLEMS FACED BY FEMALE STUDENTS IN
HIGHER EDUCATION IN KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA. Pakistan Journal of Society, Education and
Language (PJSEL), 5(2), 72-75.
Khalid, A., Ali, R., Quraishi, U., & Aziz, F. (2020). Conformity and transgression in the daily lives of Pathan
girls–a case study of education. Journal of Family Studies, 1-14.
Kombe, D., Che, S. M., & Bridges, W. (2019). Students' gendered perceptions of mathematics in middle
grades single‐sex and coeducational classrooms. School Science and Mathematics, 119(7), 417-
427.
Nuraeni, S. F. C. (2020). SINGLE-SEX EDUCATION: DOES IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE TO STUDENTS’ACADEMIC
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305.
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LEVEL, AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN PAKISTAN. Gomal University Journal of Research,
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