Voices is the Dorset Echo's weekly youth page - written for young people by young people.

This week Emily Montgomery asks whether it could be the end of single-sex schools.

In this age of gender equality, girls and boys are supposedly treated the same, yet there are still hundreds of single-sex grammar schools dotted across the United Kingdom.

The question is why?

This system was common before the 20th century, when females were viewed as lower than males.

The two genders would have completely different lessons, with girls being limited to ‘accomplishments’ such as music, sewing and needlework whilst the boys could explore a variety of academic subjects, such as Latin and skills they could use for future employment such as printing and shoemaking.

Nowadays things are vastly different.

Girls and boys learn the same subjects, both academic and non-academic and it lends the question as to the relevance of single-sex grammar schools.

Girls and boys work well with one another and it allows them to expand communication skills where they can socialise with a variety of people of both genders.

If they are limited to one, then it could potentially limit their ability to engage with the opposite gender which can be potentially dangerous.

Moreover, single-sex schools do not mirror the outside world, where the two genders do co-exist. It could be argued that single-sex grammar schools don’t prepare students for universities and jobs in the future as they are simply not used to coexisting with the opposite gender.

Grammar schools are great, but surely in this proudly diverse and different world we should be bringing the two genders together.

By Emily Montgomery