Call for co-ed Rongotai
When Emily O’Connell’s 8-yearold is a teenager, she will have to traverse suburbs to a state school but her 5-year-old brother will be able to walk down the road.
That is because the former is a girl and the latter a boy.
Now O’Connell, who lives in Lyall Bay on Wellington’s south coast, is among those leading the charge to make Rongotai College, a state boys’ school, open to both genders.
It is a move opposed by the school’s board, which argues some boys do better at single-sex schools, it is the only unzoned boys’ secondary school in Wellington, and for some it is the best place to learn to be a man.
Board chairman Bruce Simpson said the board was open to debate on the issue but was committed to boys-only education for now ‘‘because it is the best educational option for some young men’’.
‘‘We don’t claim that boys’ schools are best for all young men but for some we know they are.’’
He believed a boys’ school was the best environment for some ‘‘to develop their sense of self and learn to understand their masculinity in today’s complex and sometimes confusing world’’.
But to O’Connell, amid the MeToo era, having boys and girls learning together was more important than ever. Research showed there were no academic differences between single-sex and co-ed schools, she said.
‘‘We have a great high school two blocks from my house my daughter can’t go to because of an X chromosome.’’
The campaign – Rongotai For All 2022 – focused on getting likeminded people elected in an upcoming board of trustees election with the plan to make the school co-ed by 2022. There had been previous campaigns but this was a new push. They argued that skills children needed for the future were best fostered in diverse environments.
Katrina Casey, from the Ministry of Education, said if the college was to go co-ed, it would be school-initiated.
Wellington Mayor Justin Lester will attend a public debate on the issue to be held tomorrow from 7.30pm at the Parrotdog bar, Kingsford Smith St, Lyall Bay.