The United States Educational Structure

												Doctor’s Degree (e.g. Ph.D.)
Higher education									Postgraduate Studies		26
											25
											24
									Graduate Studies		23	Master’s Degree (e.g. M.A., M.S.)
											22
									Undergraduate Studies		21	Bachelor’s Degree (e.g. B.A., B.S.)
							4-year College				20
	Technical Institute		Private Career School		Junior or Community College						19
											18
Secondary education	12^th	4-year High School				Combined Junior-Senior High school		Senior High School		Private and Parochial Schools	17	High School Diploma
	11^th										16
	10^th										15
	9^th							Junior High School			14
Elementary education	8^th	Middle School									13
	7^th										12
	6^th										11
	5^th										10
	4^th	(4-4-4)		(8-4)		(6-6) (6-3-3)					9
	3^rd	E l e m e n t a r y				S c h o o l s					8
	2^nd										7
	1^st										6
Preschool education		Kindergarten									5
		Nursery Schools									4
											3

Education in the uk

Education is a subject about which most British people care deeply. The British education system aims to educate the whole person, so that each child develops his or her personality as well as gaining academic knowledge.

The Educational Structure in England and Wales

Form	Doctorate					Age
	Master’s degree course		Other further education courses, leading to various professional and academic certificates and diplomas
	3-4 year degree course at university or polytechnic
						18
Upper 6^th	Upper	C (A-level)		Independent Secondary Schools	Public Schools	17
Lower 6th		B (CPVE)				16
5^th		A (GCSE)				15
4^th		Comprehensive Schools Grammar Schools (less common) City Technology Colleges (since 1988)				14
3^rd	Middle					13
2^nd						12
1^st		(Junior) Primary Schools (Infant)		Preparatory Schools		11
						10
						9
	First			Pre-prep Schools		8
						7
						6
	Pre-school	Nursery Schools and Private Playgroups (Kindergartens)				5
						4
						3

Pre-schools Education

In Britain all children have to go to school between 5 and 16.

An increasing number of children under 5 receive pre-school education. Some go to playgroups several time a week and take part in structures play (=play with some educational purpose) with other children of the same age. Others go to nursery schools or kindergartens. At the age of 3 they attend nursery school (or playgroup) and at 4 they attend kindergarten. But when they reach the age of 5 they start infant school, which they attend for 2 years.

Primary Education

Compulsory education in Britain begins at age 5, and all children attend primary school till the age of 11 (England and Wales) or 12 (Scotland). In some areas children receive their primary education at an infant school (6-7) and then a junior school (8-11), or at a primary school (6-11) that combines the two. At about 11 they begin secondary education.

Secondary Education

Education in Britain is characterized by dual system: the publicly financed state schools, which are attended by about 94% of British schoolchildren, and the fee-paying private or independent schools, some of them known as “public schools”, which take in the relatively small percentage of about 6%. (The main types of schools are shown in the chart.)

The secondary state schools that are attended by the overwhelming majority of British schoolchildren are the comprehensive schools. They are non-selective schools for all children of secondary school age in a particular neighbourhood. They were introduced by the Labour Government in the 1960s and were to replace the three types of selective secondary schools, i.e. grammar schools (strictly academic, preparation for a university education), secondary modern schools (general education on somewhat lower level, including vocational courses), and technical schools (emphasis on practical and technical work, stress on career-oriented subjects). This triggered off a controversial and heated debate. By the end of the 1970s, the comprehensive versus grammar school debate was almost over. The Conservatives, when they came to power, had to carry on with the comprehensive schools, but opposition to them has never stopped completely. Since Margaret Thatcher was elected Prime Minister in 1979, LEAs (local educational authorities) are no longer required to abolish selective schools. This means that about5-10 % of children attending state schools are selected at the age of 11 according to their total school performance. The famous ‘eleven-plus’ exam, which pupils had to take up to the 1970s at the end of primary education to find out which of the existing secondary schools under the tripartite system they should attend, has been abandoned in most areas.

Widespread dissatisfaction with the state sector, which was suffering from the lack of money, old buildings, poor equipment, insufficient textbooks, low teacher morale etc., caused the Conservatives to initiate drastic reforms in British education (three major Education Acts in 1980, 1986, and 1988). The Education Reform Act 1988 introduced the most radical reforms since 1944. The obvious intention and effect of these reforms was to delegate more control of education to Westminster or to return it to individual schools, thus cutting down the influence of the local authorities who were nominally in charge of the system before. Especially the introduction of the National Curriculum caused much debate. Up to 1970s the curriculum was considered the teachers’ prerogative, influenced more by the examination boards than by the government.