Biological psychologist Tinca Polderman and her colleagues at the VU University of Amsterdam have reported that, as per their research, the academic performance of twins who share the same class is almost at par with the academic performance of those twins who are placed in different classes.

The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, seeks to resolve a dilemma that most parents of multiple children face – that of sending their children, twins, triplets or other multiples, to attend the same class or to separate classes.

Though earlier studies have recommended that it is beneficial if twins are kept in separate classes to help them develop their individual -personalities in a better way, the Dutch study further tried to substantiate the pros and cons of classroom-sharing among twins.

For their study, the researchers observed 839 identical and 1,164 fraternal pairs of twins, from The Netherlands, from 3 years of age till 12 years. While 72 percent twins shared a classroom; 19 percent were in different sections of the school; 9 percent had partly shared a classroom at some point of time.

Polderman said that upon controlling the results for socioeconomic status and behavioral issues, the researchers found “no difference in educational achievement between twins who share a classroom and twins who do not share a classroom during their primary school time.”