In 1967, St. Augustine’s College, introduced co-instructional education, into its all-boys day and boarding school. By that year, the school was already the largest in Nassau, catering to 570 boys, of which 100 were boarding students from the Out Islands, America and Canada.
By September 1967, approximately 301 girls from Xavier’s College, would join those 570 boys, enrolled in this successful and highly prized Catholic school education. For the first time in the school’s history, boys and girls, would sit side by side, in a highly structured learning environment.
This new move by the Catholic Church was not entirely unconnected to the equality social movement of the time. This co-instructional agenda coincided with a growing education wave in the country. More and more women were going abroad to obtain college and university degrees. Women were gaining higher positions in the Bahamian workplace. Same held true in the political sphere. Dr. Doris Johnson had made Bahamian history by being appointed the first female Senator in February 1967.
Along with introducing girls into the all male environment, St. Augustine’s College also introduced junior college education and examinations.
Students, upon leaving St. Augustine’s, would be adequately prepared to begin their first year of college or university abroad.
Sister Edith Marie, Headmistress of Xavier’s College walks with students Emerson Smith, Fairie Wilkinson, Lena Burgzorg and Anthony Sawyer
Sister Edith Marie, Headmistress of Xavier’s College
Parts of the new St. Augustine’s College program however, would not be co-educational.
Boys and girls received separate education for the first three years. Mixed classes only happened after form three.
