41.Give short information about the Independent schools of the uk.

There are two types of schools in the UK, state-funded or independent (privately-funded) schools. State-funded schools

Approximately ninety percent of British students attend state-funded schools. State schools follow the “National Curriculum,” with core subjects including English, mathematics and science. State schools (and some independent schools) are inspected by the Office for Standards in Education, Child Services and Skills (Ofsted) every three years and publishes the results online.

Independent schools

Also referred to as ‘public schools,’ independent schools set their own curricula and are funded by student fees and interest earned on school endowments/investments. There are approximately 2,600 independent schools in the UK. About half of these institutions participate in a voluntary accreditation program facilitated by the

42.Give short information about the post-school and higher education of the uk.

Post-school education is generally divided into higher and further education. Higher education is usually defined as advanced courses of a standard higher than A-levels or equivalent and usually refers only to first degree courses.

Courses may be full-time, part-time or sandwich courses. Degree level courses are offered by 89 universities (48 old universities and 41 new universities which were formerly polytechnics), plus 15 Scottish central institutions and hundreds of Colleges of Higher Education (CHE), many of which provide teacher-training courses. The UK is internationally renowned for the excellence of its universities and other higher education establishments, which include the world-famous Oxford (12th century) and Cambridge (13th century) universities (collectively referred to as Oxbridge). The age of admission to university is usually 18 (although they admit exceptional students at a younger age) and courses usually last for three years or four years. This is seen as a big advantage for foreign students from countries where courses often last much longer and as a result, one in ten students in the UK come from overseas.

In recent years, there has been a debate about the ‘dumbing down’ of higher education, as some universities accept students who failed their A-levels to fill empty places (universities face financial penalties if they don’t enrol sufficient students). Some universities also ‘mark up’ students who fail their exams and many people believe that the standards of today’s degrees have been watered down and are far lower than they were 20 or 30 years ago. However, UK universities still feature amongst the top ranking higher education institutions in the world and continue to produce positive results.

43.Give an overview of the system of government in the uk.

The United Kingdom is a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarch. A king or queen is the head of state, and a prime minister is the head of government. The people vote in elections for Members of Parliament (MPs) to represent them.

Constitution

The United Kingdom doesn't have a single, written constitution (a set of rules of government). But this doesn't mean that the UK has an unwritten constitution.

In fact, it is mostly written but instead of being one formal document, the British constitution isformed from various sourcesincluding statute law, case law made by judges, and international treaties.

There are also some unwritten sources, including parliamentary conventions and royal prerogatives.

• Where your rights come from

Monarchy

Politics in theUnited Kingdomtakes place within the framework of a constitutional monarchy, in which the monarch (Queen Elizabeth II) is head of state and the prime minister is the head of the UK government.

• The monarchy

Prime Minister and Cabinet

The Cabinet is a formal body made up of the most senior government ministers chosen by the prime minister. Most members are heads of government departments with the title 'Secretary of State'.

Formal members of the Cabinet are drawn exclusively from the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

• The Government, Prime Minister and Cabinet

Parliamentary democracy

The UK is a parliamentary democracy. This means that:

• members of the government are also members of one of the two Houses of Parliament (the House of Commons and the House of Lords) although there are rare exceptions to this rule

• government is directly accountable to Parliament not only on a day-to-day basis (through parliamentary questions and debates on policy) but also because it owes its existence to Parliament: the governing party is only in power because it holds a majority in the House of Commons, and at any time the government can be dismissed by the Commons through a vote of no confidence

• Parliament: House of Commons and Lords

Parliamentary sovereignty

The UK Parliament is a sovereign parliament this means that the legislative body has absolute sovereignty, in other wordsit is supreme to all other government institutions, including any executive or judicial bodies.

This stems from there being no single written constitution, and contrasts with notions of judicial review, where, if the legislature passes a law that infringes on any of the basic rights that people enjoy under their (written) constitution, it is possible for the courts to overturn it.

In the UK, it is still Parliament (and not the judges) that decides what the law is. Judges interpret the law, but they do not make the law.

• How laws are made in Parliament

Royal Prerogative

Traditionally, the Royal Prerogative is a body of customary authority, privilege and immunity, recognised in common law jurisdictions possessing a monarchy as belonging to the Crown alone.

Today, most prerogative powers are instead directly exercised by ministers, rather than the Crown. They relate to areas including the regulation of the Civil Service, certain areas of foreign and defence policy, and the granting of appointments and honours.

These powers are beyond the control of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. This means that if, for example, the British government wanted to put British troops into action, this would not formally require the consent of Parliament even if, in practice, a debate might actually take place in Parliament before such an action was taken.

Unitary government and devolution

The UK has a unitary system of government, meaninga system where power is held in the centre, although some powers have been devolved to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

• Devolved government in the UK

Permanent and impartial civil service

The UK has a civil service that acts impartially and doesnt change when the government changes.

Impartiality is not the same as neutrality. Civil servants work for ministers in the government of the day. Impartiality means that, while working for current ministers, civil servants retain the confidence of the opposition parties to work for them if they come to power.

• The Civil Service

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44.Explain the separation of powers under the British Constitution

Separation of powers is a political doctrine under which the legislative,executiveandjudicialbranches ofgovernmentare kept distinct, to prevent abuse of power.

The doctrinetraces back to ancient Greece and was further developed by English and French philosophers. In theUnited States Constitution, the phraseseparation of powers never appears, but is clearly implied by the structure of the Constitution. Therein, "all legislative Powers" are "vested in a Congress of the United States", "the executive Power" is "vested in thePresident of the United States, and "the judicial Power" is "vested in oneSupreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish". Each branch has powers that restrain the other branches in a system ofchecks and balancesthat are designed to prevent the concentration and abuse of power.

The Constitution does not dictate that stategovernments be comprised of three separate branches; they need only have arepublicanform of government. Nevertheless, the states have adopted systems of government whereby separation of powers is preserved, withstate legislatures, executivegovernors, and state court systems.

The principle of separation of powers traces its origins at least as far back as Aristotle's time. Duringthe Age of Enlightenment, severalphilosophers, such asJohn LockeandJames Harrington, advocated the principle in their writings, whereas others such asThomas Hobbesstrongly opposed it.Montesquieuwas one of the foremost supporters of separating the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. His writings considerably influenced the opinions of the framers of the United States Constitution. Some charge, however, that the Framers misinterpreted Montesquieu. According to Isaac Rice (a nineteenth century political scientist), Montesquieu opposed concentrating power in a single person, rather than a single source. It was Montesquieu himself who developed the idea of establishing a form of separation of power in government. The United States borrowed some of the philosophies of Montesquieu to create the system of checks and balances that is present in the United States government today. Rice therefore suggested that aparliamentary system—which would not comply with the strict doctrine of separation of powers—would nevertheless be consistent with Montesquieu's philosophy.

Strict separation of powers did not operate in Britain, a country whose political structure served in several instances as a model for the government created by the United States Constitution. In Britain, theKing-in-Parliament(theKingacting with the consent of theHouse of LordsandHouse of Commons) was the supreme lawmaking authority. The executive branch acted in the name of the King—it was known as "His Majesty's Government"—as did the judiciary. The King's Ministers were in most cases members of one of the two Houses of Parliament, and the Government needed to sustain a majority in the House of Commons. One minister, theLord Chancellor, was at the same time the sole judge in theCourt of Chanceryand the presiding officer in the House of Lords. Thus, one may conclude that the three branches of British government often violated the strict principle of separation of powers, even though there were many occasions when the different branches of the government disagreed with each other.

Some American states did not observe a strict separation of powers in the eighteenth century. In New Jersey, the Governor also functioned as a member of the state's highest court and as the presiding officer of one house of the Legislature. ThePresident of Delawarewas a member of the Court of Appeals; the presiding officers of the two houses of the state legislature also served in the executive department as Vice Presidents. In both Delaware andPennsylvania, members of the executive council served at the same time as judges. On the other hand, many southern states explicitly required separation of powers.Maryland,Virginia,North CarolinaandGeorgiaall kept the branches of government "separate and distinct."