Learning to be boys(3)

Odd feelings

Although Qin, like most of his classmates, enjoys his studies and life, he admitted to odd feelings when he first started his high school studies in a boys-only class. "It was so different from my middle school days. It felt strange and a novelty at the beginning, but I quickly got used to it," Qin said.

When asked whether it was his personal choice or his parents' decision to join the program, the quick-witted student grinned, and said he had been asked this several times. "Yes. I did apply to join this by myself though I had no idea what was involved. But it's turned out to be a good choice."

Bian Hui, a Chinese teacher who has been teaching one of the school's boys-only classes since the launch of the program in 2012, speaks highly of her students.

"Compared with their peers in the school's coeducational classes, these students are thinking better and communicate more effectively. They are outgoing, expressive and enthusiastic, and tend to develop a better rapport with their teachers. They have a stronger drive to learn and ask more questions, even challenging their teachers sometimes," Bian said.

While Bian praises some of the achievements of her boy students, she has also met challenges in handling occasionally adrenaline-charged adolescents. "It's harder for a teacher to control a boys-only classroom, harder to keep them quiet and focused on lessons while encouraging them to interact at the same time - it requires a lot of effort and skill."

Bian and her colleagues have adopted different teaching styles to suit the new classroom format. "For example, I have a brief reading session at the beginning of every Chinese class in an attempt to get the boys' attention and keep them concentrated," she explained.

More appealing

To make Chinese lessons more appealing to male students, Bian regularly takes her boys to city libraries for extended reading sessions. After they read she asks them to write down their thoughts and opinions and share these in discussions later.

Bian believes most of her boys have improved all-round, and the headmaster Lu Qisheng agrees.

"For me, these boys have been undergoing a series of positive changes, both mentally and physically. They have grown stronger and healthier. They have also become more reliable, sensible and capable. They have also learned to control tempers, make plans and stick to them. These are good qualities and will help them aim higher and achieve more in the future," Lu said.

The three Grade 11 students, Dai Zhongqin, Xu Ying and Qin Jiajie, who talked to the Global Times, were all ambitious about their studies and career prospects. Both Dai and Qin are working to secure places at Fudan University, the city's most prestigious institution, while Xu is aiming for the renowned East China Normal University in the hope of becoming a teacher so that he can one day return to his alma mater and teach new classes of boys. Most of their classmates are aiming for top-ranking universities in Shanghai.

While principal Lu said the current performance of the boys-only classes had succeeded beyond most people's expectations he was conservative about the future of the pilot scheme.

"Although our study results and the boys' performances have proved the viability of the single-sex school program, we don't have any intention to enroll any more students than we have at present for the upcoming fall semester," Lu said.

He said the school now has two Grade 11 classes with more than 60 boy students, and four Grade 10 classes of about 120. He didn't rule out the possibility of turning the 153-year-old high school into an all-boys affair in the future. "The school's transformation depends on lots of factors. We will wait and see how things turn out," Lu said.

Worthwhile attempt

Xiong Bingqi, an education expert and the vice president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, believes the Shanghai No.8 Senior High School's all-boys pilot program is a worthwhile attempt to diversify the city's current education demographics. "The scheme breaks the current domination of coeducational classes and shows the possibility and feasibility of diversified education modes and teaching methods," Xiong told the Global Times.

However, he said the scheme would only be a meaningless gesture if there were no radical reforms to the current gaokao (national college entrance examinations) system.

"Given the fact that all students in China still need to sit the gaokao in which only scores matter in the end, there is little point running trial programs in the name of reform. The true and core value of education can never be allied with a grading system," Xiong said.