Education around the world
Hi everyone, I figure as an international community comprised mostly of Youths who actively enjoy learning we should understand how the education systems work around the world. So please post an explanation of schooling where you come from and I'll add it to this post.
What follows is for metropolitan areas only (sorry if this is long):
Primary School Generally starts at the age of about 5, and goes from Grade 0 (called Preparation year, or prep for short) to Grade 6. This is mostly about learning basics of the world, reading and writing as well as social interaction.
The classes are generally all taught by the one teacher, except for special subjects such as art, and Physical Education (PE).
Primary schools are small and spread out, with classes of about 20 or so students often made up of two year levels at a time, with each level having about 40 students. Approx total population 300 (280 if my numbers are exact which is never the case) per school. They come in the Public (government funded, for all children) and Private (elite and payed for by fees).
Secondary school Goes from years 7 to 12, but is only compulsory to year 10; after that you enter the HCS, VCE (or other equivalent) these are various qualifications for completing Year 12 and are used to generate your TER (a comparative score for students across the state/country). There are often other qualifications too such as VCAL for those not looking at the mainstream.
Each subject is taught by a different teacher with most subjects except for English, maths and science becoming electives at around year 9 and all subjects except for English becomming electives from year 11 onwards.
Secondary schools, often called High Schools generally have class sizes of around 20-25, with anywhere from 100-400 students in a single year level. Approximate total population of 1,000-3,000 with the larger schools often splitting into two campuses of year 7 to 8-10 (depending on the school) and the other campus taking the rest.
Tertiary Education is not at all required or often even expected by society, it is generally job specialisation studies such as Degrees and Diplomas.
Universitys are large institutions generally where a student will go to earn a degree in a particular field, they are often very large 25,000+ with class and course sizes all varying greatly. Most courses go for three years but some go for more and each year is simply counted for naming (first year, second year and so on). These are separated by degree and while some subjects may apply to multiple degrees most students will remain with in there faculties, some degrees (such as Arts) will have majors but many 9such as Architecture) will simply be a degree and major in themselves.
University is often paid for by a CSP loan, which is a government loan which is paid back in that student’s taxes once they start earning over a certain amount.
TAFE are slightly smaller institutions where a student often goes to earn a Diploma, as I do not go to one I cannot easily describe it; would anyone else like to have a go?
Other notes: In Australia almost any education institution or even part of one can be called a college.
Written by Fedora.Pirate (Victoria)
Schools may have very approximitly 500 students.
Middle School This is 6-8 grade. There are two teachers and 40-ish students, some schools have four sets of 6th grade classes. The 40 students are split in half, part of which had a "home base" with one teacher (your lunch group, also the room in which you kept your stuff) and the other half part of the other "home base". One of the teachers taught language and history/geography, the other taught science and math. There was also "exploratories" where students are designated to take P.E. once a year, typing for one semester, and then choose whichever others interests them.
Schools may have roughly 700 students.
High school Grades 9-12 were here. In order to get a diploma you had to take:
4 literature classes (lits 9-12)
4 math classes (geometry, algebra 1 &2 and either alg 3 or trig)
3 science classes (biology, physical science, chemistry)
3 history (U.S., world, and then economics and govn't)
2 foreign language (either French or Spanish)
1 P.E./health
Then, there are electives ranging from choir, to drama, to horticulture, to shop... etc.
All the years were jumbled up because it was easier to fail courses. Honours and Advanced Placement kids had some classes with regular students... 9th graders and 12th graders could be in the same classes... High schools may have 1,000+ students.
College/University These terms are interchangeable. Some are junior colleges, you go for two years and get the core stuff out of the way and then go on to a larger school to focus on your major (or just stick with your associate's degree). Others are four year schools, the first two being for core classes and the final two to focus on your major to get a bachelor's degree... Then you can continue even longer and get a master's.
Written by Migdala Vered (Georgia)
So I hope you found that interesting, please post information, edits or additions about where you're from and feel free to give advice. Thanks.
Australia
Education in Australia is split into three main parts, creatively named Primary, Secondary and Tertiary.What follows is for metropolitan areas only (sorry if this is long):
Primary School Generally starts at the age of about 5, and goes from Grade 0 (called Preparation year, or prep for short) to Grade 6. This is mostly about learning basics of the world, reading and writing as well as social interaction.
The classes are generally all taught by the one teacher, except for special subjects such as art, and Physical Education (PE).
Primary schools are small and spread out, with classes of about 20 or so students often made up of two year levels at a time, with each level having about 40 students. Approx total population 300 (280 if my numbers are exact which is never the case) per school. They come in the Public (government funded, for all children) and Private (elite and payed for by fees).
Secondary school Goes from years 7 to 12, but is only compulsory to year 10; after that you enter the HCS, VCE (or other equivalent) these are various qualifications for completing Year 12 and are used to generate your TER (a comparative score for students across the state/country). There are often other qualifications too such as VCAL for those not looking at the mainstream.
Each subject is taught by a different teacher with most subjects except for English, maths and science becoming electives at around year 9 and all subjects except for English becomming electives from year 11 onwards.
Secondary schools, often called High Schools generally have class sizes of around 20-25, with anywhere from 100-400 students in a single year level. Approximate total population of 1,000-3,000 with the larger schools often splitting into two campuses of year 7 to 8-10 (depending on the school) and the other campus taking the rest.
Tertiary Education is not at all required or often even expected by society, it is generally job specialisation studies such as Degrees and Diplomas.
Universitys are large institutions generally where a student will go to earn a degree in a particular field, they are often very large 25,000+ with class and course sizes all varying greatly. Most courses go for three years but some go for more and each year is simply counted for naming (first year, second year and so on). These are separated by degree and while some subjects may apply to multiple degrees most students will remain with in there faculties, some degrees (such as Arts) will have majors but many 9such as Architecture) will simply be a degree and major in themselves.
University is often paid for by a CSP loan, which is a government loan which is paid back in that student’s taxes once they start earning over a certain amount.
TAFE are slightly smaller institutions where a student often goes to earn a Diploma, as I do not go to one I cannot easily describe it; would anyone else like to have a go?
Other notes: In Australia almost any education institution or even part of one can be called a college.
Written by Fedora.Pirate (Victoria)
USA - WIP
Elementary School Starts at Pre-Kindergarten and goes through 5th grade. Classes have 20-30 students, one teacher (and sometimes a ParaPro, which I guess is just a teacher's aide?). You stay within your grade and learn basic math, language, history and science. (For my school) Students may choose to take band or choir starting in 3rd grade. Earlier than that, the class would take music and art. Naps were taken until 1st grade. And recess was the high point of everyone's day.Schools may have very approximitly 500 students.
Middle School This is 6-8 grade. There are two teachers and 40-ish students, some schools have four sets of 6th grade classes. The 40 students are split in half, part of which had a "home base" with one teacher (your lunch group, also the room in which you kept your stuff) and the other half part of the other "home base". One of the teachers taught language and history/geography, the other taught science and math. There was also "exploratories" where students are designated to take P.E. once a year, typing for one semester, and then choose whichever others interests them.
Schools may have roughly 700 students.
High school Grades 9-12 were here. In order to get a diploma you had to take:
4 literature classes (lits 9-12)
4 math classes (geometry, algebra 1 &2 and either alg 3 or trig)
3 science classes (biology, physical science, chemistry)
3 history (U.S., world, and then economics and govn't)
2 foreign language (either French or Spanish)
1 P.E./health
Then, there are electives ranging from choir, to drama, to horticulture, to shop... etc.
All the years were jumbled up because it was easier to fail courses. Honours and Advanced Placement kids had some classes with regular students... 9th graders and 12th graders could be in the same classes... High schools may have 1,000+ students.
College/University These terms are interchangeable. Some are junior colleges, you go for two years and get the core stuff out of the way and then go on to a larger school to focus on your major (or just stick with your associate's degree). Others are four year schools, the first two being for core classes and the final two to focus on your major to get a bachelor's degree... Then you can continue even longer and get a master's.
Written by Migdala Vered (Georgia)
So I hope you found that interesting, please post information, edits or additions about where you're from and feel free to give advice. Thanks.
Tags: Education, School, World, information, international, sharring, wiki
Views: 29
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Clive-φ-Davidson ImagesNM on -
Interesting...
The Australian school system is a lot more similar to the English than the American...
And the Scottish is closer to that of Australians than Englishmen, despite the distance.
Here's my seal of approval:
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Permalink Reply by Migdala Vered on -
My Version of the American School System
Elementary School- Starts at Pre-Kindergarten and goes through 5th grade. Classes have 20-30 students, one teacher (and sometimes a ParaPro, which I guess is just a teacher's aide?). You stay within your grade and learn basic math, language, history and science. (For my school) we could choose to take band or choir starting in 3rd grade. Earlier than that, the class would take music and art. Naps were taken until 1st grade. And recess was the high point of everyone's day.
Personally, I was in gifted beginning in 1st grade. This meant me and a select few children in my grade spent an hour stretching our abilities in less dull ways.
My school had (this is a stab in the dark) 500 students.
Middle School- This is 6-8 grade. There are two teachers and 40-ish students, my school had four sets of 6th grade classes. The 40 students in my set were split in half, part of which had a "home base" with one teacher (your lunch group, also the room in which you kept your stuff) and the other half part of the other "home base". One of the teachers taught language and history/geography, the other taught science and math. There was also "exploratories" where we were designated to take P.E. once a year, typing for one semester, and then you could choose whichever others interested you. In 8th grade we took "Georgia Studies" instead of a regular history/geography class. We only learned about Georgia for the entire year.
All during middle school, I was in SCOPE. I have no idea what this actually stands for, but I dubbed it as "Smartest Children on Planet Earth". I took my math class with SCOPE in 6th grade. In 7th, I took language. And in 8th it was language and Georgia Studies.
My school had roughly 700 students.
High school- Grades 9-12 were here. In order to get a diploma you had to take:
4 literature classes (lits 9-12)
4 math classes (geometry, algebra 1 &2 and either alg 3 or trig)
3 science classes (biology, physical science, chemistry)
3 history (U.S., world, and then economics and govn't)
2 foreign language (either French or Spanish)
1 P.E./health
Then, there were electives ranging from choir, to drama, to horticulture, to shop... etc.
All the years were jumbled up because it was easier to fail courses. Honours and Advanced Placement kids had some classes with regular students... 9th graders and 12th graders could be in the same classes... My school had about 1000 students.
You could drop out and get a GED, or work at the Piggly-Wiggly your whole life. In order to decrease drop-outs, my county began an online school. I was part of this. I think it made me dumber.
College/University- These terms are interchangeable. Some are junior colleges, you go for two years and get the core stuff out of the way and then go on to a larger school to focus on your major (or just stick with your associate's degree). Others are four year schools, the first two being for core classes and the final two to focus on your major to get a bachelor's degree... Then you can continue even longer and get a master's. (I'm not sure if other countries call it the same thing...)
I know there are also private schools, Montessori schools and there's another kind of school where you go to the school twice a week, but then are taught at home the rest of the time. I've had friends in these types of schools, but I never went to one myself.
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Permalink Reply by Clive-φ-Davidson ImagesNM on
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Too... Much... Knowlege...
*Head A-Splode*
In reply to this thread I would like to state that I do not know enough about the English school system to write more than a couple of lines on the subject, so I'm saying nothing.
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Permalink Reply by Fedora.Pirate on -
Nice write up, but you might want to mention what the year levels are called in each section; like freshman, junior, etc. As most other places don't use these terms and they can easily confuse :)
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Permalink Reply by JennaHemmena on -
My school is weird. I'd like to explain it... But I'm too lazy..
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Permalink Reply by Migdala Vered on
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Oh, right...
9th grade/1st year college= freshman
10th grade/2nd year= sophomore
11th grade/3rd year= junior
12th grade/4th year= senior
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Permalink Reply by Hel on -
Erm, I guess the English system is fairly similar.
You start with primary school at the age of four or five. Before this you can go to nursery or play group, but it's not really formal education. Primary schools have maybe two classes per year group and one teacher per class who teach everything. You stay there till you're ten or eleven. Basically you have English, Maths and science every morning then either history, art or Religious Studies in the afternoon. At least, that's how my primary school was.
Then at eleven you more up to Secondary or Comprehensive school. You stay there for five years. Year 7-11. For the first three years you have to do a range of subjects and you get put in sets according to ability for maths, English and science and maybe a few of the other subjects, like languages. Then in years 10 and 11 you start doing your GCSEs (General Certificate of Education). You must do maths, English and science but otherwise you can pick any five subjects to do; including dual or triple award science. Mostly you take all the exams in year 11.
At sixteen you are allowed to leave school and get a job; get an apprenticeship for something like plumbing OR go to sixth form college. Often people doing apprenticeships go to college part-time to learn their skill and work and are paid for the rest of the time.
Sixth form college is where you can do A levels in up to four subjects. These are two year specialised courses in pretty much any subject you want. You do exams at the end of each year which contribute to your overall grade. Again, after this you may choose to leave education and get a job OR go on to university.
University is pretty much the same as it is in every other country. A three year specialised course in a subject of your choice.
I guess in England we just specialise really quickly.
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Permalink Reply by Trick on -
I'm so glad somebody did this before I felt obliged to! I've a couple of points to add:
- In some areas of the UK you can take the 11+ exam in Year Six (end of primary school); passing this is required for entry to a grammar school. There are no requirements for going to a comprehensive except the issue of the number of places.
- The number of GCSEs you take varies from school to school, though Maths, English and some form of Science are compulsory everywhere. At my school we also have to take a language and a humanity (History/Geography/Religious Studies). Most people at my school take 10 GCSEs; some of us do 11 or 10 plus Additional Maths, which is a kind of stand alone qualification; at another school in the area you take eight.
- Again, number of A-Levels varies by school - at some schools you can only take two or three, others you can do five. You can also do the IB instead of A-Levels, which isn't offered everywhere; as I understand it you take six subjects, three to Higher level and three to Standard. This is supposed to enable you to go to uni in other countries or something.
- Some of uni courses, such as medicine, are longer. You can also stay on after your first degree (bachelor's, I think) to do a master's or a PhD.
(Sorry, I don't mean to sound like a smartarse.)
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Permalink Reply by Heidi on -
we only do 8 or 9 GCSEs, depending on your results from the preious year,but additional maths is included in that
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Permalink Reply by sabelmouse on -
when i grew up in germany we had a tired system. hauptschule, where everyone goes from about 6, then around 9/10 you are sorted into either stay where you are, we don't expect that much of you, realschule, which is a middling sort of education, for cicil servants or office workers maybe, and gymnasium which will hopefully lead to abitur and university.
i don't know if it is still the same.
the whole thing was when i was young riddled with class expectations and limits so that despite propaganda the average working class child had as much hope of going onto higher education as a camel getting through the eye of a needle.
ok, slightly better odds.
we moved to ireland to be able to home educate or rather ubschool, which is absolutly imposible in germany.
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Permalink Reply by Palladium Alchemist on -
The US school system (At least my experience):
I went to school K-8 in Arizona, and it has one of the worst standardized test scores ever.
Elementary school was K-6. There were no extracurricular activities, but in 3rd grade you could join the orchestra or band (god forbid you want to play two instruments), which both had about 5 members each. (In 5th grade it was just me and another girl in orchestra) In 3rd grade you could be tested into honors, and I was tested into English, so I left my class every day to go to the honors room. Classes had about 30 students to a teacher, and one teacher taught every subject until 6th grade, where you had two other teachers that either taught Grammar, Science, or Social Studies. I had the Social Studies teacher for every other subject, so I went to Grammar and Science. This was to prepare us for middle school, where you have a different teacher for every subject. There were about 500 kids in my school.
Middle school consisted of 7-8th grade. There were about 1,000 kids at this school, because all the elementary schools feed into the middle school. Because I was in honors in elementary school, I was automatically placed in honors English. Your homeroom teacher was your first period teacher, ad you switched every class. The middle school had two "teams" for each grade, so half the grade would have these teachers and the other half would have those teachers. Lunch was served to an entire grade at a time. You could choose any elective you wanted except for PE. Every one had to take PE, also known as Physical Education.
I'm currently in high school, and after 8th grade ended, I had to say goodbye to all my friend (that's not a typo, I had only one friend XD) and move to the east coast. The part of the country with the best schools. They didn't test me into
the AE (Advanced Enrichment) program, honors math, science, or social studies. If they had given me a test, I'd be graduating a year (or possibly two) early, and be a junior this year. Pennsylvania tests much, much higher than Arizona on standardized tests, but they are two years behind in curriculum. Why? Because with high test scores, they get more money from the government. Arizona has high property taxes, so they can say "%*$# you!" to NCLB, because not only do they run their schools efficiently (at least money wise) they have the sense enough to realize that if kids don't want to learn, they can be left behind. Wow. Rant. Back to the school. I'm a sophomore, and I'm finally getting to see the high school, because in this state middle school is 6-9. This state also has one of the most illogical honors systems. To be in Honors English, I had to take Honors History. I couldn't take Honors Science (Which my teacher personally recommended I should take) Because I wasn't in Geometry. They say if you're not in the right math class, you can't be in the science class, because you use what you learn in math and apply it to your science class. That makes sense. But i just can't seem to find a way that Geometry applies to Biology. Proofs are not going to help me dissect a frog.
You know what's really sad? I haven't learned about any history outside of the US. I get take World History this school year, but anyone in the normal class has to wait until they're Juniors. JUNIORS? 11 years and it's just NOW that we learn about other countries?
The school system is a living hell, that's all I know.
To pass High School you need:
4 English credits
4 History credits
3 Science credits
3 Math credits
2 Foreign Language Credits
2 PE/Health Credits
In AZ I would have also needed 1 Technology credit,
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Permalink Reply by Migdala Vered on
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Your experience sounds a bit different than mine.
Yeah, we don't like learning about the world in these parts... I remember learning about the world in Geography. But that's population, imports/exports and where it's located on the planet. World history is lame. And I meant the actual class. I love learning about the history of the world... But there's just too much to cram into one hour long class which lasts for half a year... They should spread that one out a bit more.
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