Full time education is compulsory for all children between the ages of 5 and 16. Over 90 per cent of all school children attend schools maintained from public funds. Besides this state system of education there are also fee-paying independent schools (for about seven per cent of children).

Almost all state schools are day schools, which have classes from Mondays to Fridays. The school year in England and Wales normally begins in early September and ends in the following July. The year is divided into three terms of around 13 weeks each (September-December, January-March, April-July). The school day usually begins between 8 and 9 a.m. and ends around 4 p.m. It includes a long morning and afternoon break and about an hour’s lunch break.

School uniforms are worn in most private schools and at many state secondary schools (especially Grammar schools).

The state system of education is divided into four stages: pre-school and primary, secondary, further and higher education.

Pre – school and Primary Education

Pre-school and primary education is provided by nursery and primary schools. In England many children attend nursery schools (kindergartens) or pre-school play groups, mostly organized by parents in the age of 3 or 4 years.

Compulsory education begins at 5, when children go to infant schools. Emphasis in the infant school is on learning through experience, through drawing painting, musical activities, movement and play. Children learn to read, write a little and do simple counting.

At 7 many children move to junior schools, where the work is more systematic. The usual age for transfer from primary to secondary school is 11.

Secondary Education

At the age of 11 pupils transfer from primary to secondary school. About 90 per cent of state secondary school pupils go to Comprehensive schools. The word „comprehensive“ means all-inclusive. Most of these schools are very large and vary in size, 900 to 1,500 pupils is the most common. They take children of all abilities and provide a wide range of secondary education, both academic and practical, for all or most of the children in a district within the 11-to 18-year age range.

About four per cent of children attend Grammar Schools, which they enter at the age of 11 on the basis of their abilities. Grammar Schools offer a mainly academic education for the 11 to 18-year age group.

Six per cent of children attend Secondary Modern Schools, which provide a more general education up to the age of 16.

Further Education

All 16- and 17-year olds are guaranteed a place in full-time education or training and all suitably qualified people are encouraged to go into higher education. Further education is provided both by the top two classes of a comprehensive and grammar school and by independent six-form colleges and terciary colleges.

Six-form colleges are schools, which provide academic and non-academic education beyond the GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education).

Tertiary colleges offer a range of full-time and part-time vocational courses as well as more academic ones.

Qualifications

The main qualification taken by secondary pupils at around the age of 16 is the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE).

The General Certificate of Education (GCE) – at the age of 16.

The Government would like to see more schools offer vocational qualifications, therefore it has introduced a new type of vocational qualification – the General National Vocational Qualification (GNVQ) which will provide pupils with an alternative to the more traditional GCEs and A levels.

Independent Schools

About seven per cent of children attend independent or private schools not funded by the state. These schools charge high tuition fees of about £ 4,000 a term, but many offer scholarships. Around 550 independent schools for pupils aged 11 to 19 are commonly known as „public“ schools, although they receive no state funding. Most independent schools for younger pupils are mixed, but the majority of private secondary schools are single-sex. Most schools require school uniforms.

Higher Education

Around 30 per cent of all young people in Britain go into full-time higher education. Higher education institutions include universities, teacher training colleges and other colleges of technology, art and professions allied to medicine. Britain has 89 universities and 70 other institutions. All these institutions enjoy complete academic freedom, which includes appointing their own staff and deciding which students to admit, what and how to teach and which degrees to award.

The oldest British universities are Oxford (1167) and Cambridge (1229) in England and four in Scotland -St. Andrews (1411), Glasgow (1451), Aberdeen (1494) and Edinburgh (1583). All the other universities were founded in the 19th (London, Manchester or Wales) and the 20th centuries such as Bristol, Birmingham, Liverpool, Reading, Nottingham, Exeter, Sussex and York. The 19th century universities became known as the „redbrick“ universities as opposed to the ancient stone of Oxford and Cambridge. There are also new universities in Scotland such as Strathclyde in Glasgow, Heriot-Watt in Edinburgh, Dundee and Stirling. There were two waves of opening new universities after World War II. One in the 1960s, when such universities as Sussex in Brighton, York, Warwick in Coventry, Kent in Canterbury were established. The other wave came in the 1990s when 39 new universities were created.

The Open University is Britain’s main distance – learning institution for adults. No formal academic qualifications are required to enroll in undergraduate courses, but the standards of its degrees and other qualifications are as high as other universities.

Most university courses last between two and four years. Sandwich courses, which include a period of work experience outside the institution, can extend the length of the course by up to a year, and medical and veterinary courses require five or six years. Although most students take degree courses, some are on sub-degree courses such as Higher National Diploma (HND) or Diploma in Higher Education (DipHE).

Degree titles vary according to the practice of each university. A Bachelor’s degree (Bachelor of Arts – B.A., Bachelor of Science – B.Sc.) is given to students who pass examinations at the end of three or four years of study. A Master’s degree (Master of Arts- M.A., Master of Science- M.Sc.)may be obtained by attending a postgraduate course or by writing a paper, or thesis. The degree of Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy) is given for a thesis both in humanities and science (e.g. Ph.D. in Physics, English, History etc.).