An all-girls middle school slated to open in September 2011 in Zhuhai has stirred debate on gender-based education.

On May 20, schoolmaster Wang Jiaye announced that Zhuhai Girls Middle School is under construction and will enroll girls from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao.

An all-girls high school slated to open in September 2011 in Zhuhai has stirred debate on gender-based education.

According to Wang, the school will pursue a gender-based education system with the ultimate goal being to train promising young women to be self-confident, independent, and intellectually inclined through a distinctive curriculum.

Zhong Yijun, the director of Zhuhai Education Bureau, said the bureau strongly supports the establishment of the school.

However, some residents worry the gender-specific system has too many shortcomings. They perceive that girls will always have limitations in mathematics and logic; that the gender-based system will ignore these limitations and prevent the girls from developing fully. Or simply that the all-girls curriculum won't be as academically rigorous as boys receive.

Zhuhai resident Li Qin thinks an all-girls school could prevent infatuation that derails good study habits. She blames "puppy love" for damaging her daughter's academic performance.

"If I sent her to the all-girls school, this damn puppy love would not have ambushed my daughter and hijacked her good grades," Li said.

Yet Mr. Wu, a teacher from Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai campus, pointed out that separating boys and girls won't resolve or stifle "puppy love." On the contrary, Wu says it may cause sexual repression. Adolescents are extremely curious about everything of the opposite sex, so it would have a negative effect on their development if a single-gender policy were mandated.

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