Five secondary schools and five primary schools switched from single sex to co-educational status during 2024.
Data from the Department of Education shows that the schools, in Cork, Dublin, Donegal and Sligo, all applied for and were granted co-ed status is time for their reopening in September after the summer break.
In moving to mixed status they are part of a growing trend.
Earlier this month, Longford town's two Catholic secondary schools became the latest to announce that they would merge as one new co-educational school from next September.
The schools that made the switch in 2024 include Presentation Secondary School and St Patrick’s College both in Cork city, St Mary’s Secondary School and St David’s College in the Dublin suburbs of Baldoyle and Artane and Summerhill College in Sligo.
At primary level, two school in Dublin’s Drumcondra, one in the city’s suburb of Chapelizod and two schools in Carndonagh, Co Donegal, also changed to co-ed.
The latest data from the Department of Education shows that most teenagers are now being educated in co-educational settings, just over 292,000, compared to almost 56,000 boys and 68,500 girls who attend single sex schools.
In some traditional Catholic single-sex schools, falling enrolments have encouraged the move to co-education, as parents seek out mixed schools for their children in preference to single sex.
Some of those schools have experienced significant growth in their enrolment following the change.
The Department of Education and schools say the trend towards co-ed is being driven by parental demand.
They say parents like their sons and daughters to be able to attend the same primary or secondary school. They also want a broad range of subjects to be available to their children - for example, some single-sex boys' schools may not offer home economics while some single sex girls' schools may not offer subjects like woodwork or construction studies.
Parents - particularly those of children at primary school - also like the convenience of being able to drop their children to one school instead of two.
Studies also show social benefits from mixed schooling. A recent study found that children who attend co-educational schools have more friends.
The UCD School of Education report also found that teachers felt single-sex schooling reinforced gender binaries.
