There are no studies that confirm or deny whether it is better to have the twins together or separately in class. In Spain, for example, children of multiple births were separated in schools, but now, with the issue of bubble groups, the practice has changed, and the siblings must be together. This includes those of different parents of the same age living together.
But going back to the question at the beginning, is it better for the education and development of siblings to go together or separately? What does the scientific evidence say? The truth is that there are hardly any studies on the matter with Spanish students and those carried out in other countries do not allow to conclude that one choice or another is more recommendable.
Twin brothers together or apart in class?
Over the years the education of twins or twins has changed. If before it was proposed that they were in the same class, then the opposite was changed. Neither one thing nor the other seems to be better than the other, just different. And you have to take into account the degree of dependency or autonomy that each sibling has, as well as their individual personalities.
The current trend in Spain, again, it is going back to that the children of multiple births go to the same class, claiming that separating them is detrimental to them. Traditionally, schools are the ones who make the decision. But there are associations that defend that this choice, together or apartIt must depend on the parents, the twins themselves and the teachers, depending on the individual needs of these siblings.
Brian Byrne, Professor of Psychology at the University of New England in Australia, is one of the researchers who has analyzed how separation in the classroom influenced twin brothers and twins aged 7 to 16 in the United Kingdom and Canada. A sample of 9.000 pairs of siblings was taken, and it was concluded that there was almost no effect, either positive or negative, of this separation on performance, cognitive ability and motivation of the siblings analyzed.
Criteria for and against
It seems clear that each country follows a criterion for the education of this type of sibling. What there is a trend is that little by little, the opinion of families is increasingly taken into account who claim to have the multiples together or separately in the classroom, and these criteria do not always respond to the benefit of the child, but to the management of the family itself.
Those who decide to have their twins attend in the same class, they usually base this decision on the fact that the twins complement each other and they are happier being together. The separation that is made from the mother when they go to school can be more difficult if, in addition, it is separated from its twin. The brothers lean on day-to-day difficulties, on homework. In the first 3 years, twins usually do not have a precise awareness of where one ends and another begins, so it is considered hasty to separate them.
The families who decide that twins are in separate classes, they usually base their decision on one of the twins dominating over the other, or that there is some rivalry between them. With a particular and independent space, the twins get to better develop their personality and individuality, they feel important to their teacher and their classmates.
Conclusion: do not generalize
There are no conclusive studies, and what the experts seem to indicate is that it should not be generalized whether the siblings should be in the same classroom or not. Schools should have a flexible policy and work with families to meet the needs of each individual child.
According to Tinca JC Polderman, lead author of the research and professor in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of the Academic Medical Center of the University of Amsterdam, there is no one-size-fits-all solution at the time of separating or not pairs of twins at school. Depending on the siblings' relationship to each other, their personalities, and their wishes, a thoughtful decision should be made when they start school and for years to come.
There are times when brothers and sisters start the school period together, and then separate in primary or secondary school. Also it must be taken into account that the daily functioning of families, having children in two different classes implies a certain complication of routines, such as different learning rates and homework, tutoring at different times ... which, sometimes, are not easy to handle.