The school administration sent a notice to students and parents on Friday announcing the school would begin admitting boys to Grade 7 Secondary 1 as of September The private school said that current students will not have to share classes with boys, and will continue that way until they graduate.
I think it's important to have that all girls atmosphere and not have to have the distraction of boys. The co-ed education is just one part of what the school is calling a new program, that will also include new study guides, and new programs in specific fields.
But McGill professor Jon Bradley believes the real reason for the change is money. Even though Villa Maria doesn't currently have an enrolment problem, he feels the decision to add boys is the result of changing demographics. Villa Maria was founded by the Congregation Notre Dame as a private girls school in , and is the oldest private school for girls in Montreal.
It was a boarding school for more than years, even for children whose families lived in the city, but the residence eventually closed in The school also stopped teaching elementary students in the s, and shifted from a Catholic basis for education to a secular system. Several other private schools that offered classes only to boys or girls have either gone co-ed or closed.
College Jean-de-Brebeuf, which opened as a boys-only school in , opened a separate girls school in Classes are separated by gender but there are communal areas for boys and girls. Queen of Angels Academy, which operated as an all-girls school in Dorval for years, closed its doors for good on June 30, Bradley says there's no proof that students do better without the distraction of the opposite sex.
