The issue of single-sex versus coeducational schooling has from time to time occupied the attention of educators and policy makers in various countries, including Jamaica and other countries of the Carib bean. Proponents of one type of schooling or the other cite a variety of reasons for their preference, ranging from the social, emotional, and developmental outcomes for boys and girls, to superior academic achievement in one type of school versus the other. Coed and single-sex schools have been compared and evaluated in respect of academic achievement; attitudes to academic subjects; career aspirations; the devel opment of discipline, especially among boys; and nonstereotypical atti tudes to gender roles. The relative importance of the academic as compared to the social and emotional outcomes is itself controversial since it relates to one's view of what is important in the development of young people and the role of the school in this process.