Single-sex education, also known as single-gender education, is the practice of conducting education with male and female students attending separate classes, perhaps in separate buildings or schools. The practice was common before the 20th century, particularly in secondary and higher education. Single-sex education in many cultures is advocated on the basis of tradition as well as religion, and is practiced in many parts of the world. Recently, there has been a surge of interest and establishment of single-sex schools due to educational research. Single-sex education is practiced in many Muslim majority countries; while in the West it is most popular in Chile, Israel, South Korea, and English-speaking countries such as Singapore, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong in China, New Zealand, and Australia. In the Western world, single sex education is primarily associated with the private sector, with the public (state) sector being overwhelmingly mixed sex; while in the Muslim world the situation is the opposite: public schools are usually single sex, while many private schools are mixed sex. Motivations for single sex education range from religious ideas of sex segregation to beliefs that the sexes learn and behave differently, and, as such, they thrive in a single sex environment. In the 19th century, in Western countries, single sex girls' finishing schools, and women's colleges offered women a chance of education at a time when they were denied access to mainstream educational institutions. The former were especially common in Switzerland, the latter in the US and the UK, which were pioneers in women's education.
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