Coeducación

COEDUCATION: WOMEN IN CONTEMPORARY SPAIN

Around 60 per cent to over 80 per cent over the 1980s (IM 1995e). Under the LOGSE pre-school education is free in public centres but, here too, demand continues to outstrip supply. In 1989/90, two-thirds of 4-5 years olds at pre-school centres were in the public sector, although girls were slightly more likely to attend a private centre (IM 1994d). Many of these private centres are Catholic-run and have tended to retain single-sex education against the trend elsewhere. At a time when co-education is obligatory in all new public educational centres this makes private centres particularly attarctive to parents who oppose co-education on ideological or other grounds. The debate around co-education in Spain has been lively and protracted,and continues to resonate in discussions of girls' education today (Scanlon 1986;IM 1995a). Research elsewhere in Europe suggests that the tendency of many girls towards inhibition in the mixed classroom( particularly at higher levels, and even when they greatly outnumber boys) makes them more likely to develop their confidence and autonomy,and more likely to break away from traditional subjetc choices, in single-sex schools (Santos 1994b). The debate around these findings has made little impression in Spain, however, where single-sex schools are still associated with the profound traditionalism of the Franco regime. It is from this perspective that sections of the Women's Movement fought hard and successfully in the 1970s to put co-education on the political agenda, and against this background that the IM's continuing commitment to co-education needs to be seen (Im 1995a).This does not mean that feminist educationalists support co-education uncritically. Sociologist Isabel Alberdi, for example, has been questioning its tendency to reproduce masculine models for over a decade. More  significantly,perhaps, the IM's own Head of Educational and Cultural Programmes has recently underlined the need to adapt educational paradigms to accomodate sexual difference (Alberdi 1986,1996; Mañeru Méndez 1994). Elena Rodrigo indirectly acknowledges these tensions when she attributes Spanish girls' current tendency to outperform boys at all levels to the fact that girls are smarter, more responsible,harder working, and swots [ emphasis in original]. They are less likely to participate in class and they lack boys' initiative, but they are the ones who finally come top in exams, and achieve higher pass rates and better qualifications generally. As a result they experience fewer educational problems and are less likely to drop out than their male counterparts.