Educational Systems
a) Czech Republic:
Pre-school education begins at the age of 6 months when children may attend crèches until the age of three. From the age of 3 till the age of 6 children attend kindergartens. School attendance is compulsory from the age of 6 till 15.
Primary education starts at basic schools and lasts 9 years. Children receive an education foundation: writing, counting and reading skills, Czech language and literature, basics in physics, biology, civics etc. They are evaluated by marks from 1 to 5. One is the best and 5 is the worst. Each term a student gets his school reports from both compulsory and elective subjects.
Secondary education lasts usually 4 years – from the age of 15 or till the age of 19. Secondary education may be divided among:
– gymnasium
– secondary technical schools (schools of economics, agriculture schools, music schools, schools for health workers etc.)
– secondary vocational schools which prepare young people for practical professions.
Students end their secondary education after passing their school-leaving exam, which consists of two parts: written part (around April – students have to pass exam in Czech language) and oral part (around May) in Czech language and literature, foreign language and two other subjects.
Tertiary education starts at the age of 19 and lasts usually from 4 to 6 years. Students may attend various universities or colleges (Medical Faculty, School of Economics, Law Faculty etc.)
- b) Great Britan:
Children in Great Britan can attend nursery schools from the age of 3, where they spend all time by playing. All children must go to school when they are 5.
Primary school consist of two stages – Key Stage One is for children 5-7 years old. The National Curriculum has to be followed. Children have literacy and numeracy for an hour each. At the age of 7 they receive a test to see how well they are learning (infant school).
– Key Stage Two is for children 7-11 years old, they learn to work more independently, at the age of 11 they have another test (junior school).
Secondary school is for children from 11 to 16 years. Pupils are sent to the nearest school to their home and if the school isn´t good, their parents can apply to a different school. The problem is that the schools can have a long waiting list, so it´s often easier to move house to better school. Pupils are tested again at the age of 14 (KS3). But the first major exams are G.C.S.E (general certificate of secondary education) at the age of 16 (KS4). After passing these exams pupils can leave the school or go to a college.
There are two types of state schools: comprehensive and grammar (students have to pass a competitve exam), both of them are for free. Britan has also independent schools (many of them are boarding schools) called public schools (for example Eton) and the parents have to pay fee. The third type of schools in GB are church schools.
VI Form Colleges are for students from16 to 18 years where pupils study for their „A“ level exams. Then, students can go to a University( Oxford, Cambridge).
Degrees: BA (Bachelor of arts), BSc (Bachelor of science), MA (Master- postgraduate degree)
- c) United States:
In USA, compulsory education begins at the age of 6. Most of schools are public school financed by state or local governments and they are free. Then there are private schools and you have to pay high fees. The third group are the church schools.The education is not the same in every state and depends on the principal of the school.
There is practised the K- 12 system, which means one year of kindergarten and twelve degrees of education.
Elementary school: from the first to sixth grade, children have the same taecher for different subjects, three are taught 3 Rs: reading, writing and arithmetics, some other subjects are for example history and geography. When the child behaves badly, he is punished- he can stay behind for a few minutes or can be sent to the principal´s office.
Secondary school:
- Junior high (7th and 8th grade) – different subject are taught by different teachers, they have more opportunities to choose subjects they want to study.
- High school has four degrees: freshman, sophomore, junior and senior. When students graduate from high school, they recieve a
– after school, students can choose from many extra- curriculumn activities such as joining clubs with people having the same hobbies (chess, computers, acting, cooking,…), working on school newspapers or playing sports.
Colleges/ Universities– differences: despite students say go to college, they mean university. Colleges are smaller and there are for students studying for bachelor´s degree.
Students who want to go to university or college have to take SAT, students from other countries have to take TOEFL (test of English as a foreign language). They have to apply application form (usually to 3- 6 colleges), which often includes a question for which the student has to write an essay. The student also has to send a transcript (including subjects and graades received) and letters of reference.
Students are valued by grades from A to F (f means that the student failed). The university calculates a grade point averadge = GPA. All universities charge tuition so many students have to manage a part-time job.
Ivy League= 8 most famous private universities: Harvard (the oldest, in Cambridge, Massachusetts), Yale (in Connecticut), Columbia University (in NY).
Vocabulary: civics………………………občanská výchova
vocational………………….odborný
school-leaving exam………maturita
school reports………………vysvědčení
stage………………………..fáze, stupeň
Curriculum…………………učební osnova
Comprehensive……….……všeobecný
Graduate from………………absolvovat
Transcript…………………………kopie
Reference…………………………osvědčení