Education system of great britain

EDUCATION SYSTEM OF GREAT BRITAIN.
Plan:
1. Primary education in Great Britain.
2. Secondary education in Great Britain.
3. Higher and Further education in Great Britain.

The system of public education in England and Wales had developed piecemeal over more than a hundred years. It is a complicated system, full of confusing details, and there are wide variations between one part of the country and another. Though It is supposed to provide equality of opportunity for all, it, in fact, sustains inequality at every stage. It is class-divided and selective. The first division is between those who pay and who do not pay , the second , between those selected for an intellectual training and those not so selected.

Schools in England and universities throughout Great Britain are the responsibility of the Secretary of State for Education and Science.
Under the Act, the Secretary of State is responsible for securing the “ effective execution” of the “national policy” . in other words the Secretary of State does not control directly, but acts at one remove.
School education is determined by the local education authorities. These elected bodies are required, under the 1944 Act to provide education in three successive stages ( primary, secondary and further ) and to “ contribute towards the spiritual, moral, mental and physical development of the the community “ by ensuring that “ efficient education throughout these stages shall be available to meet the needs of the population “.
Beyond those general principles , local education authorities decide on the size and, generally the organization of schools. They prescribe the level of text-books allowances. They make decisions on a whole lot of the non-statutory extras. They can employ extra teachers on a part-time basis.
Parallel to the state system, there is a private education system of 2,300 schools. Parents pay fees of about £1,500 to £2,200 per annum to send their children to these schools . There are preparatory schools where children, aged five to thirteen, are coached for the entrance exams to the public schools. There are 470 public schools which form the pinnacle of fee-paying education; the most famous among them are Eton, Harrow, Marlborough, Winchester and Roedean. The fees are prohibitive to all but the richest parents . Working-class children are the exception there.
Education in Britain mirrors the country’s social system. Vast untapped sources of talent and ability exist amongst working-clss children, who do not get the right educational opportunities. The bias against the working-class child operates throughout the school system , through selection and in many other ways. As a result a large number of talented young people never get near the university.
Admission procedures are in the hands of middle –class individuals who find it difficult not to regard the working-class boy as a “bit of a rough diamond”. Clothes, accent, confidence at interview, if there is one, occupation of parents, are all features which give rise to bias either conscious or unconscious.
The National Education Act of 1944 provided three stages of education; primary, secondary and futher education. The years of compulsory schooling are from five to sixteen (since 1973).
Primary education. Primary education is up to the age of about eleven, covering nursey school or classes ( 3 to 5 ), infant school ( 5 to 7 ) and junior school ( 7 to 11 ).
For a long time the spread of nursery education was inadequate to the needs of the country . This means that the working-class mother who chooses to send her child to nursery school must also arrange to have him transferred to or from that school at midday. Only about 15 per cent of children will be able to attend full-time nursery schools, after which they go to a primary school.
Compulsory education begins at five when children go to infant schools, at seven they go to junior schools. It is assumed that by the time children are ready for junior school they will be able to read and write and do simple addition and subtraction of numbers.
The curriculum in the junior schools is arranged formally into individual subjects.
The children have set periods of arithmetic, reading and composition. They will do other subjects too; nature study, history, geography, singing, drama, physical education, religious instruction, and so on.
In a primary school the first lesson of the day is usually Bible study , and the second lesson arithmetic, both written and mental.
Secondary education. The transition from primary to secondary school is made between ten –and-a-half and twelve years.
Formerly , children took an exam at the end of their primary education to determine whether they continued their education at secondary modern or grammar schools. At the secondary moderns, they would receive a more vocational education, while at grammar schools the emphasis was academic and exam-centred.
Comprehensive schools were introduced more than thirty years ago, and now 75 per cent of all secondary schools are comprehensive. However, some comprehensive and many secondary schools do not have the full range of academic courses for six-formers. Pupils can transfer either to a grammar school or to a six-form college to get the courses they want.
Examinations. At sixteen pupils of grammar, comprehensive or technical schools take their General Certificate of Education, Ordinary level examinations ( GCE 'O-Level).
Pupils of modern schools , after completing five years of secondary education, take their Certificate of Secondary Education examinations (CSE).
Both GCE and GSE examinations are conducted not by the schools, but by special examining boards. All examinations are fee-paying, but the fees are paid by the local education authorities. The exams are taken as individual subjects, so a student may take as many subjects as ability and time permit, and success or failure in one subject will not influence another.
Five O-levels, including English and Maths, are a standard requirement for professional jobs such as nursing, clerical officer in the civil service and assistant librarian. Students who want to go on to college or university usually take seven or eight O-levels followed by a two-year course leading to A-level (Advanced) GCE in two or three subjects.
Three –fifths of the boys and nine-tenths of the girls of school-leaving age get no further education, and for those that do get it the education is overwheimingly vocational and available only so long as their employer chooses to release them from work.
Primary and secondary schools of all kinds provide full-time education; futher education may be part-time education.
Higher education. There are 44 universities ( not counting the Open University) in Britain. Although the Government is responsible for providing about 80 per cent of the universities’ income, it does not control thier work or teaching , nor does it have direct dealings with the universities. The grants are distributed by the University Grants Committee, a body controlled by the Secretary of State for Education and Science.
The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge date from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and the Scottish Universities of St. Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. All the other universities were founded in the ninetenth or twentieth centuries.
Admission to the universities is by examination and selection . Women are admitted on equal terms with men but at Cambridge their numbers may be limited by ordinance. The general proportion of men to women students is about three to one; at Oxford it is over four to one, and at Cambridge seven to one.
Oxford is very old , having been in existence since 912, and it has great charm. The name Oxford means the part of the river Thames where the oxen (cattle) forded (crossed).
The choice of small rural village of Oxford as a seat of learning was significant. Far removed from foreign influence, Oxford was within comparatively easy reach of all parts of England. From the bigenning the university was designed not for the aristocrats, but for the English commoners. It was established in 1249.
Oxford is international because people from all over the world come to study at its university; at one of the twenty-nine men’s colleges or at one of the five women’s colleges that make up the university; they join the university “family”, which has more than 8,000 members. The oldest of the colleges is University college. They are scattered throughout the town and were founded at various times. In addition to the men’s and the women’s colleges there are five coeducational colleges.
The present facilities at Oxford include theology and oriental studies, law, English language and literature, medieval and modern history, humane letters, social studies, medicine, physics and chemistry, biology, authropology, geology, agriculture, forestry and music.
Cambridge is world famous principally as a university city. Many of the colleges are grouped together, and with their buildings, surrounding green courts, their fine chapels, halls and libraries, and tree-lined parks, they create a picture of Cambridge as one of the most interesting and beautiful cities in Great Britain.
The University of Cambridge may be said to have originated in the 12^th century, and before the beginning of the 13^th was almost certainly a recognized centre of study.
In medieval times it taught all who could live in the town and pay their lecture fees . At first there were no colleges in the modern sense of the word , nor were there professors. Lectures were delivered by licensed teachers of the university, and oral examinations for degrees were conducted in Latin.
In 1276 it was laid down that “ no one shall receive a scholar who has not a fixed master within 15 days after the said scholar has entered the university , and in 1284 the first college, Peterhouse, was founded on the model of Merton College, Oxford.
In the 17^th century, the reputation of the university declined a little and its educational curriculum became less liberal. By the end of that century, however, the university was the home of the Cambridge Platonists and of Sir Isaac Newton (professor of mathematics, 1642-1727, whose influence was deep and permanent). Serious tests were imposed upon candidates for degrees. During the early part of the 19^th century examinations were futher improved. Written examinations were more frequently employed.
The university in the mid-20^th century was a body of more than 55,000 members, about 7,000 of whom were graduates.
Admission to the university may be secured only by members of the colleges and of Fitzwilliam House , and as a general rule memebership of these bodies is open only to persons who possess the necessary qualifications for matriculation.
There are nineteen colleges, including two for women students which were built near the end of the last century . Women students do not play a very active part in University life at Cambridge, by the way, but they work harder than men and men and one seldom sees them
outside of the classrooms.