Question

In recent years educators and parents become concerned about the poor performance of boys in school. The so-called “boy crisis” in education refers to both their academic performance and their behaviour. In both areas boys’ results are much worse than girls’.

USA data shows that the boys rank behind girls in almost all areas of schooling. They earn lower grades overall in primary school and high school. They are behind girls in reading and writing, and 30 percent of them are in bottom quarter of standardized tests, compared with 19 percent of girls. Boys are also more likely to have behavioral problems, to repeat a grade and drop out of school altogether. Studies in China have found similar trends

Although the causes of the “boy crisis” are not fully understood, some experts believed that the same-sex (boys-only and girls-only) classrooms and schools may help solve the problem. The idea is to remove some of the distractions(使人分心的事) caused by the opposite sex, in order to improve students’ concentration and hopefully their grades. The first Chinese school to experiment with this idea is the Shanghai No.8 Middle School, which began “boys-only” classes in September, 2012. Although it is too early to tell if the reform（改革） has made a difference, its supporters argue that the results are promising.

Answer 1

Nowadays boys tend to perform worse than girls in all aspects in school. So experts suggest that same-sex schooling may be a possible solution to the problem.