Реферат: Education in Great Britain. Реферат education in britain

Реферат - Education in great britain

British and European systems have much in common.

In the first full-time education is compulsory for all children in their middle teenage years.

Further the academic year begins at the end of the summer. The most compulsory education is free of charge, though parents may choose a private school and spend their money on educating their children.

In conclusion there are three stages of schooling primary school, secondary school and higher school.

The most important distinguishing features are the lack of uniformity and comparatively little central control.

It means that The Department of Education and Science is responsible for national educational policy, but it doesn't run any schools, and the local education authorities (LEAs) also pass the responsibility on to the school governing bodies, schools and head teachers. Each school has its own "board of governors", consisting of teachers, parents, local politicians, members of the local community, businessmen and sometimes pupils. And the school is responsible for its own organization and curriculum

The majority of primary schools are mixed. In most counties these schools are subdivided into Infant schools and junior schools.

The aim of Infant schools is to develop their creative abilities of pupils.

The junior stage which extends over 4 years is teaching of different subjects. And at the stage school children have set periods. Such is Arithmetic, Reading, Composition, History, Geography, Nature Study.

Children are admitted to different secondary schools on the results of various intelligence tests (which substitute for the abolished eleven-plus exam). Where such selection is practised, children are sent to grammar schools, technical schools or secondary modern schools.

The variety of types of comprehensive schools all-through schools, two-tier schools and a sixth-form college or tertiary college. A comprehensive system have established middle schools and upper schools.

Before leaving secondary school between the ages of 16 and 18 schoolchildren may take one of two sets of examinations: the General Certificate of Education exam and the Certificate of Secondary Education exam.

In summary then, one can say that there are two main tendencies in the secondary education system at present: 1) attempts at its unification, 2) selection in education.

The structure of higher education in Great Britain is very complex. Four types of institutions - universities, teacher-training colleges, colleges of advanced technology and technical colleges - are the main sources of full-higher education.

The Universities have two features in common. In the first place there are no state universities in Britain. Secondary the standards for first degrees are intended to be the same at all universities. The universities grant their own degree. The normal duration of a first degree course is three years.

At the end of a first degree course the successful students are awarded a Bachelor's degree, usually a Bachelor of Arts or a Bachelor of Science.

Higher degrees may be divided into 3 groups: masterships, the doctorate in philosophy and the senior doctorates.

Colleges of advanced technology in the quality of their work and in status are equal to the universities. They are courses where there are alternate periods of full-time employment and full-time education.

The technical colleges provide advanced technical studies training in: food technology, heating, ventilating, refrigeration and fan engineering, rubber technology, etc.

Students of teacher-training colleges take the subjects, which they intend to teach as main subjects to a standard which approaches that of pass degree given by universities.

^ EDUCATION IN THE USA

The system of American education includes pre-school education, elementary, intermediate, secondary and higher education. The US educational system is much decentralized and schools vary greatly from state to state. Every resident pays a school tax to the school district he/she lives in, no matter he/she has school children or not. School education in the United States is free and parents are free to choose a school for their children. But if parents send their child to a school of another school district they have to pay the sum equivalent to the school tax directly to the school the child goes to.

There are also a lot of private schools, mainly religious, and parents have to pay for them. There is no home education in the United States.

^ Pre - school education. In the United States there is a variety of pre-school, nursery school and kindergarten programs. The majority of American educationalists consider that the aim of pre-school education is the child's individual development rather. Nursery schools and kindergartens are regarded as means of helping children make the transition from home to school.

^ Elementary schools. The elementary school course is from six to nine years in length, the ordinary period being eight years.

The program of studies in the elementary school includes English, arithmetic, geography, history of the USA, and elementary natural science including human physiology and hygiene. Physical training, vocal music, drawing and manual training are often taught.

Religious teaching is officially not permitted, although the exercises of the day are often opened with a reading from the Bible and the singing of a hymn.

Corporal punishment is forbidden by law in New Jersey, and in many states may be used only under restrictions.

^ Intermediate Education - the Junior high school. The junior high school is a sort of halfway point between elementary and secondary school. It comprises grades seven, eight and nine.

Secondary education. The typical high school is comprehensive in nature. The objectives of the comprehensive high school are to provide: 1) general education for all students; 2) subjects useful to those who will leave high school for employment or marriage, and 3) necessary preparatory education for those planning to enter colleges and universities.

There are public and private high schools.

^ Higher Education. U.S. colleges and universities offer a wide variety of programs ranging -from highly academic courses to very practical ones. Students can be educated not only for academic professions, but also for technical professions, such as mechanics, nursing, medical technology, computer technology and bookkeeping.

Each college or university determines its own entrance policies. Some consider themselves "open door" institutions, giving everyone an opportunity to learn. Others are highly selective and competitive.

In universities young people study four years to get Bachelor's degree. If one wants to get Master's degree he/she must study two years more and do a research work. If one has Master's degree, studies more, does a research work and passes an oral, comprehensive examination he/she gets Doctor's degree (PhD).

The academic year is usually of nine months duration, or two semesters of four and a half months each. Classes usually begin in September and end in June.

During one term a student will study four or five different subjects. The student's progress is often evaluated through quizzes (short tests), term papers, and a final examination in each course. Each part of a student's work in a course is given a mark which helps to determine his final grade. A student's record consists of his grade in each course. This system is unlike that of most European countries.

The methods of instruction are the lecture, discussion and work in laboratory or seminary.

^ EDUCATION IN RUSSIA

The system of public education in Russia covers preschool education, general secondary education, out-of-school activities, vocational-technical education, specialized secondary education, higher education.

Free, compulsory education is available for all children between the age of 7 and 17. Even remote areas have a full education service. Most children attend pre-school kindergarten and continue in further education after they are 17.

Preschool education is the part of a unified system of education. It includes creches which look after children from 2 years old and up to three years, and kindergartens which accept children aged from 3 to 6 years inclusive.

Primary school consists of a four-year course for children at the age of six or seven years old. Another five years of studies give children nine-year education. At this stage pupils take Single State Examinations. After completing the 9th form some pupils enter technical or vocational schools where, in three or four years, they get their secondary education as well as a sound knowledge of the fundamentals of the production process and a high level of technical knowledge. The rest graduates of the 9th form receive 11-year education at general secondary schools where they study two more years.

There are three types of secondary schools. Most pupils attend general secondary schools, where they add computer studies and more science subjects to their timetables. Particularly gifted pupils are selected for special secondary schools, where they receive extra tuition in such topics as art, music, languages or electronics. Vocational secondary schools concentrate on subjects, such as mathematics, chemistry or physics.

The aim of the new school reform is to achieve a combination of general secondary education with overall vocational training.

There is a network of boarding schools in our country where pupils not only study, but live, have their meals and clothes. There are special schools ones for physically and mentally handicapped children.

Education in Russia is not free at every level.

Higher education includes Universities, Institutes, Drama studios, conservatoires, etc. The duration of studies is four, five or even six years.

In Russia there are three systems used in higher and special secondary education: full-time, part-time, and correspondence courses.

There are three types of higher education schools: universities, polytechnical universities and academies.

Universities prepare research workers in humanities: philology, economics, psychology, law, philosophy, literature and history. They also train workers in sciences: chemistry, mathematics, biology, geology, geography, astronomy and so on. Teachers for secondary schools and colleges are also prepared by the universities. Universities offer a five-year course of study.

There are higher technical schools with ten or more departments, each offering courses in related fields.

Hundreds of institutes train qualified experts for an enormous number of fields; industrial, agricultural and cultural.

The faculty in higher schools is competitively chosjen. A vacancy is publicized and applications are examined by the Academic Council. There are two degrees: Candidate and Doctorate. Those who wish to undertake postgraduate work pass special examinations and present written work in their own field. The usual term for graduates study is three years - full time students receive state stipends larger than undergraduates and two momth vacation.

Образование в Великобритании

Британские и европейские системы имеют много общего.

В первой очной образование является обязательным для всех детей в средней подростковом возрасте.

Далее учебный год начинается в конце лета. Наиболее обязательное образование бесплатно, хотя родители могут выбрать частную школу, и тратить свои деньги на образование своих детей.

В заключение Есть три ступени обучения в начальной школе, средней школе и вузе.

Из важнейших отличительных черт является отсутствие единообразия и сравнительно небольшой центральной власти.

Это означает, что Министерство образования и науки несет ответственность за национальную политику в области образования, но он не работает какой-либо школы, местных органов образования (МОО) также передать ответственность на органы школьного самоуправления, школ и завучей. Каждая школа имеет свой собственный "Совет управляющих", состоящий из учителей, родителей, местных политиков, членов местного сообщества, бизнесмены, а иногда и учеников. А школа несет ответственность за свои собственные организации и учебные программы

Большинство начальных школ являются смешанными. В большинстве стран эти школы подразделяются на школы детей грудного и младшего школ.

Цель дошкольных является развитие их творческих способностей учащихся.

Младший этап, который длится в течение 4 лет преподавания различных предметов. А в театральной школе детей установили периоды. Такова арифметика, чтение, состав, история, география, природа исследования.

Дети принимаются в различных средних школ по результатам различных тестов интеллекта (который заменит отменили одиннадцать с лишним экзамен). Если такой отбор практикуется, дети направляются в гимназии, техникумы и общеобразовательных школах.

Разнообразие видов общеобразовательных школ все через школы, два уровня, школ и шестого класса колледжа или высшего колледжа. Всеобъемлющей системы создали средних школ и верхней школ.

Перед отъездом из средней школы в возрасте от 16 и 18 школьников может занять один из двух наборов экзаменов: свидетельство об общем образовании экзамен и аттестат о среднем образовании экзамен.

В целом то, можно сказать, что Существуют две основные тенденции в системе среднего образования, в настоящее время: 1) попытки его унификации, 2) выбор в сфере образования.

Структуры высшего образования в Великобритании является очень сложным. Четыре типа учреждений - университетов, педагогических колледжах, колледжах передовых технологий и технических училищ - главные источники полного высшего образования.

Университеты имеют две общие черты. Во-первых, Есть не государственные университеты в Великобритании. Среднее стандартов первой степени предназначены для одинакова во всех университетах. Университеты предоставляют свой собственный уровень. Нормальная продолжительность первого курса степени три года.

В конце первого курса степени успешные студенты получают степень бакалавра, как правило, степень бакалавра искусств или бакалавра наук.

Высшие степени могут быть разделены на 3 группы: masterships, доктора философии и старшего доктора.

Колледжи передовых технологий в области качества их работы и статуса равны университетов. Они курсы, на которых Есть чередующихся периодов полный рабочий день и полный рабочий день обучения.

Технические колледжи обеспечивают передовые технические учебные исследования в: технология приготовления пищи, отопления, вентиляции, охлаждения и вентиляторов, резиновые технологии и т.д.

Студенты педагогических колледжей принимают предметам, которые они намерены научить, как главных тем стандартом, который приближается к пройти степени определяется университетов.

^ Образование в США

Система американского образования включает дошкольное образование, начальное и среднего, среднего и высшего образования. Американская система образования гораздо децентрализованной и школах значительно варьируются от штата к штату. Каждый житель платит налог на школу школьного округа он / она живет, независимо от того, он / она детей школьного возраста, или нет. Школьное образование в Соединенных Штатах, является бесплатным и родители имеют право выбирать школу для своих детей. Но если родители отправляют своих детей в школу другого района школы им придется заплатить сумму, эквивалентную школы налога непосредственно в школу ребенок идет в.

Есть также много частных школ, в основном религиозные, и родители должны платить за них. Существует нет дома образования в Соединенных Штатах.

Дошкольное образования. В Соединенных Штатах существует множество дошкольных, детских школ и детских садов программ. Большинство американских педагогов считают, что целью дошкольного образования является индивидуальное развитие ребенка, а. Детские сады и школы, рассматриваются в качестве средства оказания помощи детям в переходе от дома до школы.

Начальные школы. Элементарный курс школы составляет от шести до девяти лет в длину, обычный срок восемь лет.

Программа обучения в начальной школе включает английский язык, арифметика, география, история США, а элементарные естественные науки, включая физиологии человека и гигиены. Физическая подготовка, вокальная музыка, рисование и учебные пособия часто учат.

Религиозное образование официально не разрешено, хотя и упражнений в день часто открыты с чтения Библии и пения гимна.

Телесные наказания запрещены законом в Нью-Джерси, а также во многих государствах могут быть использованы только при ограничениях.

Среднего образования - среднюю школу. Средней школе является своего рода полпути между начальной и средней школы. Она включает семь классов, восемь и девять.

Среднее образование. Типичные школе носит всеобъемлющий характер. Целей всеобъемлющего средней школы, чтобы обеспечить: 1) общего образования для всех учащихся, 2) предметы, полезные для тех, кто будет оставить школу для трудоустройства или замужества, и 3) необходимые подготовительное образование для тех, кто собирается войти в колледжи и университеты.

Существуют государственные и частные вузы.

Высшее образование. Американские колледжи и университеты предлагают широкий спектр программ, начиная от высоко-академические курсы очень практичны из них. Студенты могут обучаться не только для академических профессий, но и для технических профессий, таких, как механика, уход за больными, медицинские технологии, компьютерные технологии и бухгалтерского учета.

Каждый колледж или университет определяет свою собственную политику входа. Некоторые считают себя "открытых дверей", учреждений, предоставляя каждому возможность учиться. Другие высоко избирательным и конкурентоспособными.

В университетах студенты обучаются четыре года, чтобы получить степень бакалавра. Тот, кто хочет получить степень магистра он должен учиться еще два года и сделать исследовательскую работу. Если один имеет степень магистра, исследования более, не научно-исследовательская работа и проходит устно, всестороннего изучения он / она получает докторскую (PhD).

Учебный год обычно девять месяцев продолжительности или два семестра в четыре с половиной месяца каждый. Классы обычно начинаются в сентябре и заканчиваются в июне.

В один срок студент будет изучать четыре или пять различных тематик. прогресс учащегося часто оценивается через викторины (краткое тесты), курсовые и выпускные экзамены в рамках каждого курса. Каждая часть работы студента в течение дается знак, который помогает определить его итоговой оценки. личное дело учащегося состоит из его класса в рамках каждого курса. Эта система в отличие от большинства европейских стран.

Методов обучения являются лекции, дискуссии и работа в лаборатории или семинарии.

^ ОБРАЗОВАНИЕ В РОССИИ

Система народного образования в России включает дошкольное образование, общее среднее образование, вне школьной деятельности, профессионально-техническое образование, среднее специальное образование, высшее образование.

Бесплатное, обязательное образование доступно для всех детей в возрасте от 7 до 17 лет. Даже отдаленных районах, полный комплекс услуг образования. Большинство детей в дошкольных детских садах и в дальнейшем продолжить образование после их 17.

Дошкольное образование является частью единой системы образования. Она включает в себя детские ясли которые ухаживают за детьми от 2 лет и до трех лет, а также детские сады, которые принимают детей в возрасте от 3 до 6 лет включительно.

Начальная школа включает четыре курса обучения для детей в возрасте шести или семи лет. Еще пять лет учебы дают детям девятилетнего образования. На этом этапе учащиеся принимают Единый государственный экзаменов. После окончания 9-го класса некоторые ученики ввести технических и профессиональных учебных заведениях, где в три или четыре года, они получают среднее образование, а также глубокими знаниями в области основ производства и высокий уровень технических знаний. Остальные выпускники 9 класса получить 11-летнее обучение в общеобразовательных средних школах, где учатся еще два года.

Есть три типа средних школ. Большинство учащихся посещают общеобразовательных школ, где они добавить компьютер исследований и более субъектов науки в свои сроки. Особо одаренных учащихся, отобранных для средних специальных учебных заведений, где они получают дополнительное обучение по таким темам, как искусство, музыку, Языки и электроники. Средними профессиональными школами сосредоточить внимание на предметы, как математика, химия или физика.

Цель новой школьной реформы является достижение сочетание общего среднего образования с общей профессиональной подготовки.

Существует сеть школ-интернатов в нашей стране, где учащиеся не только учиться, но жить, питаться и одежды. Есть специальные школы для них физически и психически неполноценных детей.

Образование в России не является бесплатным на всех уровнях.

Высшее образование включает университеты, институты, театральные студии, консерватории и т.д. срок обучения составляет четыре, пять или даже шесть лет.

В России Есть три системы, используемые в области высшего и среднего специального образования: полный рабочий день, неполный рабочий день, и заочных курсах.

Существуют три вида высших учебных заведений образования: университеты, политехнические университеты и академии.

Университеты подготовки научных работников гуманитарных наук: филологии, экономики, психологии, праву, философии, литературы и истории. Они также обучение работников в области науки: химии, математике, биологии, геологии, географии, астрономии и так далее. Учителя средних школ и колледжей, также подготовленный университетов. Университеты предлагают пять лет обучения.

Существуют высшие технические школы с десятью или более отделов, каждый из которых предлагает курсы в соответствующих полях.

Сотни институтов, подготовки квалифицированных специалистов для огромного количества полей, промышленной, сельскохозяйственной и культурной областях.

Факультет в высших учебных заведениях конкурсно chosjen. Вакансия гласности и заявления рассматриваются Ученым советом. Есть две степени: кандидат и доктор. Те, кто пожелает провести аспирантуру проходят специальные экзамены и представить письменные работы в своей области. Обычный срок для выпускников исследования составляет три года - полное время студенты получают государственные стипендии больше студентов и два momth отпуск.

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Реферат - Education in Britain

MOSCOW STATE TEACHER`S TRAINING UNIVERSITY

COURSE PAPER

Education in the United Kingdom

Written by Isaeva Tatiana

group 301

Checked by Makhmuryan K.

MOSCOW 2001

PLAN

1. Introduction

2. Primary and secondary education

3. The story of British schools

4. Arguments aboout the purpose of education

5. Changing political control

6. The public system of education (a table)

7. The private sector

8. Further and higher education

9. Conclusion (Education under Labour)

10.Questions

Introduction

ducation in England is not as perfect as we, foreigners think. There are plenty of stereotypes, which make us think, that British education is only Oxford and Cambrige, but there are also many educational problems.During the last fifteen years or so, there have been unprecedented changes in the system of education in England and Wales. I’ll try to explain the changes and the reasons for them. In my work I will also give a description of the system of education, which differs from that in Russia very much.

Primary and secondary education

chooling is compulsory for 12 years, for all children aged five to 16. There are two voluntary years of schooling thereafter. Children may attend either state-funded or fee-paying independent schools. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the primary cycle lasts from five to 11. Generally speaking, children enter infant school, moving on to junior school (often in the same building) at the age of seven, and then on to secondary school at the age of 11. Roughly 90 per cent of children receive their secondary education at 'comprehensive' schools. For those who wish to stay on, secondary school can include the two final years of secondary education, sometimes known in Britain (for historical reasons) as 'the sixth form'. In many parts of the country, these two years are spent at a tertiary or sixth-form college, which provides academic and vocational courses.

Two public academic examinations are set, one on completion of the compulsory cycle of education at the age of 16, and one on completion of the two voluntary years. At 16 pupils take the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), introduced in 1989 to replace two previous examinations, one academic and the other indicating completion of secondary education. It was introduced to provide one examination whereby the whole range of ability could be judged, rather than having two classes of achievers; and also to assess children on classwork and homework as well as in the examination room, as a more reliable form of assessment. During the two voluntary years of schooling, pupils specialise in two or three subjects and take the General Certificate of Education (always known simply as 'GCE') Advanced Level, or 'A level' examination, usually with a view to entry to a university or other college of higher education. New examinations . Advanced Supplementary (AS) levels, were introduced in 1989, to provide a wider range of subjects to study, a recognition that English education has traditionally been overly narrow. The debate about the need for a wider secondary level curriculum continues, and Labour is likely to introduce more changes at this level. These examinations are not set by the government, but by independent examination boards, most of which are associated with a particular university or group of universities. Labour may replace these boards with one national board of examination.

A new qualification was introduced in 1992 for pupils who are skills, rather than academically, orientated, the General National Vocational Qualification, known as GNVQ. This examination is taken at three distinct levels: the Foundation which has equivalent standing to low-grade passes in four subjects of GCSE; the Intermediate GNVQ which is equivalent to high-grade passes in four subjects of GCSE; and the Advanced GNVQ, equivalent to two passes at A level and acceptable for university entrance.

The academic year begins in late summer, usually in September, and is divided into three terms, with holidays for Christmas, Easter and for the month of August, although the exact dates vary slightly from area to area. In addition each term there is normally a mid-term one-week holiday, known as 'half-term'.

The story of British schools

or largely historical reasons, the schools system is complicated, inconsistent and highly varied. Most of the oldest schools, of which the most famous are Eton, Harrow, Winchester and Westminster, are today independent, fee-paying, public schools for boys. Most of these were established to create a body of literate men to fulfil the administrative, political, legal and religious requirements of the late Middle Ages. From the sixteenth century onwards, many 'grammar' schools were established, often with large grants of money from wealthy men, in order to provide a local educational facility.

From the 1870s local authorities were required to establish elementary schools, paid for by the local community, and to compel attendance by all boys and girls up to the age of 1 3. By 1900 almost total attendance had been achieved. Each authority, with its locally elected councillors, was responsible for the curriculum. Although a general consensus developed concerning the major part of the school curriculum, a strong feeling of local control continued and interference by central government was resented. A number of secondary schools were also established by local authorities, modelled on the public schools.

The 1944 Education Act introduced free compulsory secondary education. Almost all children attended one of two kinds of secondary school. The decision was made on the results obtained in the '11 plus' examination, taken in the last year of primary school. Eighty per cent of pupils went to 'secondary modern' schools where they were expected to obtain sufficient education for manual, skilled and clerical employment, but where academic expectations were modest. The remaining 20 per cent went to grammar schools. Some of these were old foundations which now received a direct grant from central government, but the majority were funded through the local authority. Grammar school pupils were expected to go on to university or some other form of higher education. A large number of the grammar or 'high' schools were single sex. In addition there were, and continue to be, a number of voluntary state-supported primary and secondary schools, most of them under the management of the Church of England or the Roman Catholic Church, which usually own the school buildings.

By the 1960s there was increasing criticism of this streaming of ability, particularly by the political Left. It was recognised that many children performed inconsistently, and that those who failed the 11 plus examination were denied the chance to do better later. Early selection also reinforced the divisions of social class, and was wasteful of human potential. A government report in 1968 produced evidence that an expectation of failure became increasingly fulfilled, with secondary modern pupils aged 14 doing significantly worse than they had at the age of eight. Labour's solution was to introduce a new type of school, the comprehensive, a combination of grammar and secondary modern under one roof, so that all the children could be continually assessed and given appropriate teaching. Between 1965 and 1980 almost all the old grammar and secondary modern schools were replaced, mainly by coeducational comprehensives. The measure caused much argument for two principal reasons. Many local authorities, particularly Conservative-controlled ones, did not wish to lose the excellence of their grammar schools, and many resented Labour's interference in education, which was still considered a local responsibility. However, despite the pressure to change school structures, each school, in consultation with the local authority, remained in control of its curriculum. In practice the result of the reform was very mixed:

the best comprehensives aimed at grammar school academic standards, while the worst sank to secondary modern ones.

One unforeseen but damaging result was the refusal of many grammar schools to join the comprehensive experiment. Of the 174 direct-grant grammar schools, 119 decided to leave the state system rather than become comprehensive, and duly became independent fee-paying establishments. This had two effects. Grammar schools had provided an opportunity for children from all social backgrounds to excel academically at the same level as those attending fee-paying independent public schools. The loss of these schools had a demoralising effect on the comprehensive experiment and damaged its chances of success, but led to a revival of independent schools at a time when they seemed to be slowly shrinking. The introduction of comprehensive schools thus unintentionally reinforced an educational elite which only the children of wealthier parents could hope to join.

Comprehensive schools became the standard form of secondary education (other than in one or two isolated areas, where grammar schools and secondary moderns survived). However, except among the best comprehensives they lost for a while the excellence of the old grammar schools.

Alongside the introduction of comprehensives there was a move away from traditional teaching and discipline towards what was called 'progressive' education.-This entailed a change from more formal teaching and factual learning tc greater pupil participation and discussion, with greater emphasis on comprehension and less on the acquisition of knowledge. Not everyone approved, particularly on the political Right. There was increasing criticism of the lack of discipline and of formal learning, and a demand to return tc old-fashioned methods.

From the 1960s there was also greater emphasis on education and training than ever before, with many colleges of further education established to provide technical or vocational training. However, British education remained too academic for the less able, and technical studies stayed weak, with the result that a large number of less academically able pupils left school without any skills or qualifications at all.

The expansion of education led to increased expenditure. The proportion of the gross national product devoted to education doubled, from 3.2 per cent in 1954, to 6.5 per cent by 1970, but fell back to about 5 per cent in the 1980s. These higher levels of spending did not fulfil expectations, mainly because spending remained substantially lower than that in other industrialised countries. Perhaps the most serious failures were the continued high drop-out rate at the age of 16 and the low level of achievement in mathematics and science among school-leavers. By the mid-1980s, while over 80 per cent of pupils in the United States and over 90 per cent in Japan stayed on till the age of 18, barely one-third of British pupils did so.

I. Arguments about the purpose of education.

There is a feeling that the schools are not succeeding — that standards are too low, that schools are not preparing young people with the skills, knowledge and personal qualities which are necessary for the world of work, and that schools have failed to instil the right social values. These are the criticisms and therefore there have been changes to meet these criticisms.

However, the criticisms take different forms. First, there are those who believe that standards have fallen, especially in the areas of literacy and numeracy — and, indeed, unfavourable comparisons are made with the other countries as a result of international surveys. For example, the recent Third International Mathematics and Science Survey (TIMSS) placed in England and Wales very low in mathematical achievement at 13 — although very high in science. Therefore, these critics emphasize «back to basis» and the need for more traditional teaching methods.

Second, there are those who argue for a rather traditional curriculum which is divided into «subjects» and which calls upon those cultural standards which previous generations have known — the study of literary classics ( Shakespeare, Keats, Wordsworth) rather than popular multi-cultural history, classical music rather than popular music, and so on. Since there are many children who would not be interested in or capable of learning within these subjects, there is a tendency for such advocates of traditional standards to support an early selection of children into «the minority» who are capable of being so educated, separated off from «the majority» who are thought to benefit more from a more technical or practical education.

Third, there are those who question deeply the idea of a curriculum based on these traditional subjects. Many employers, for instance, think that such a curriculum by itself ill — serves the country economically. The curriculum ought to be more relevant to the world of work, providing those skills, such as computer, numeracy and literacy skills, personal qualities (such as cooperation and enterprise) and knowledge (such as economic awareness) which make people more employable.

A very important speech which expressed those concerns and which is seen as a watershed in government policy was that of Prime Minister Callaghan at Ruskin College, Oxford, in 1976.

«Preparing future generations for life» was the theme and he pointed to the need for greater relevance in education on four fronts:

1. the acquisition by school leavers of basic skills which they lacked but which industry needed;

2. the development of more positive attitudes to industry and to the economic needs of society;

3. greater technological know-how so that they might live effectively in a technological society;

4. the development of personal qualities for coping with an unpredictable future.

In what follows I give details of the different contexts in which this concern for change was discussed.

a) Economic Context

It is generally assumed that there is a close connection between economic performance and the quality and context of education and training, and that therefore the country’s poor performance economically since the second world war (compared with some other countries) is due to irrelevant and poor quality education. During the thirty years from the end of the Second World War not enough pupils stayed on beyond the compulsory school leaving age. There were too many unskilled and semi-skilled people for a much more sophisticated economy. Standards of literacy and numeracy were too low for a modern economy. There was not enough practical and technical know-how being taught.

As a result, it was argued that there must be much closer links between school and industry, with pupils spending time in industry, with industrialists participating in the governance of schools, and with subjects and activities on the curriculum which relate much more closely to the world of work.

Furthermore, there should be a different attitudes to learning. So quickly is the economy that people constantly have to update their knowledge and skills. There is a need for a «learning society» and for the acquisition of «generic» or «transferable» skills in communication, numeracy, problem-solving, computer technology, etc.

b) Social Context

There are anxieties not just about the future economy but also about the future of society. Preparing young people for adult life was what the Ruskin speech was about, and there is much more to adult life than economic success — for example, living the life of a good citizen, of a father or mother, of involvement in social and political activity. Therefore, schools are required to prepare young people for a multicultural society, to encourage tolerance between different ethnic groups, to promote social responsibility, to encourage respect for the law and democratic institutions, to develop sensibilities towards the disadvantaged and to ensure girls enjoy equal opportunities with boys. And schools have. Indeed, responded with programs of social education, citizenship, and parenthood. Moreover, they have often done this in practical ways such as organizing projects.

c) Standards

The need for educational change arises partly from a concern about academic standards. The sense that Britain is declining has been reinforced by statements from employers. According to them, Britain’s workforce is under-educated, under-trained and under-qualified! These criticisms of standards are pitched at different levels. First, there are worries about low standards of literacy and numeracy. Second, international comparisons give weight to misgivings about the performance of British schoolchildren in mathematics and science. And, therefore, the subsequent changes have tried to define standards much more precisely, and o have regular assessment of children’s performance against these standards.

a) After 1944

The key educational legislation, until recently, was the 1944 Education Act. That Act supported a partnership between central government (Local Education Authorities or LEAs), teachers and the churches — with central government playing a minimal role in the curriculum.

The 1944 Education Act required the Secretary of State to promote the education of the people of England and Wales and the progressive development of institutions devoted to that purpose and to secure the effective execution by local authorities, under his control and direction, of the national policy for providing a varied and comprehensive educational service in every area.

In the decades following the Act, «promotion» was perceived in very general terms — ensuring that there were resources adequate for all children to receive an education according to «age, ability and aptitude», providing the broad legal framework and regulations within which education should be provided (for example, the length of the school year or the division of education into primary and secondary phases), and initiating major reports on such important matters as language and mathematics teaching.

Within this framework, the LEA organized the schools. The LEA raised money through local taxation to provide education from primary right through to further and indeed higher education, and made sure that the schools and colleges were working efficiently. They employed and paid the teachers. And ultimately they had responsibility for the quality of teaching within those schools.

The Churches were key partners because historically they (particularly the Church of England) had provided a large proportion of elementary education and owned many of the schools.

The 1944 Act had to establish a new partnership between state, LEAs and the church schools.

b)After 1980

However, the changing economic, social and cultural conditions outlined in the previous section caused the government to reexamine the nature and the composition of that partnership. The questions being asked during the 1980’s included the following:

Has central government the power to make the system respond to the changing context? Are the local authorities too local for administrating a national system and too distant for supporting local, especially parental, involvement in school? Have the parents been genuine partners in the system that affects the future welfare of their children? And what place, if any, in the partnership has been allocated to the employers, who believe they have a contribution to make to the preparation of young people for the future?

1) New governing bodies

Various Acts of Parliament since 1980 have made schools more accountable .

Teachers, employers and parents have been given places on the governing bodies. Governors have to publish information about the school that enables parents to make informed choices when deciding to which school they should send their child. Each LEA has to have a curriculum policy that must be considered and implemented by each governing body. Schools also must have a policy on sex education and must ensure that political indoctrination does not take place. This accountability of schools and LEAs has to be demonstrated through an annual report to be presented to a public meeting of parents. The government gave parents the right to enrol their children — given appropriate age and aptitude — at any state school of their choice, within the limits of capacity. Parents already sent their children to the local school of their choice. The decision to publish schools' examination results, however, gave parents a stark, but not necessarily well-informed, basis on which to choose the most appropriate school for their child. Increasingly parents sought access to the most successful nearby school in terms of examination results. Far from being able to exercise their choice, large numbers of parents were now frustrated in their choice. Overall, in 1996 20 per cent of parents failed to obtain their first choice of school. In London the level was 40 per cent, undermining the whole policy of 'parental choice' and encouraging only the crudest view of educational standards. Schools found themselves competing rather than cooperating and some schools, for example in deprived urban areas, faced a downward spiral of declining enrolment followed by reduced budgets. Thus the market offered winners and losers: an improved system for the brighter or more fortunate pupils, but a worse one for the 'bottom' 40 per cent. Schools in deprived parts of cities acquired reputations as 'sink' schools. As one education journalist wrote in 1997, 'There is a clear hierarchy of schools:

private, grammar, comprehensives with plenty of nice middle-class children, comprehensives with fewer nice middle-class children and so on.'

2) Central control

The government has looked for ways of exercising greater influence over what is taught in schools. New legislation gave the government powers to exercise detailed control over the organization and content of education. The 1988 Education Act legislated a National Curriculum and a system of National Assessment. In addition, significant changes were enacted to make possible the central financing and thus control of schools through creating a new kind of school outside LEA control (first, the provision of City Technology Colleges 9CTC), and, second, the creation of Grant Maintained Schools (GMS)). The government also significantly reduced the power of local authorities by transferring the management of schools from the LEA to the schools themselves (known as the local management of schools or LMS).

At the same time, within this more centralized system, parents have been offered greater choice through the establishment of different kinds of schools (GMS and CTC), through the delegation of management to the governing bodies of the schools (LMS) and through the granting of parental rights to send their children to the school of their choice.

The various Parliamentary Acts (but especially the 1988 Act) gave legal force to a massive change in the terms of the education partnership. First, the Secretary of State now has powers over the details of the curriculum and assessment. Second, a mechanism has been created whereby there can be more participation by parents (and to a much smaller degree by employers), in decisions that affect the quality of education. Third, the LEAs have been required to transfer many decisions over finance, staffing, and admissions to the schools and colleges themselves. Fourth, the LEA responsibility for the curriculum has been transferred to the Secretary of State.

3) Employer involvement

The voice of the consumers will be heard more, and the consumer includes the employer. Several initiatives encouraged employer participation. First, and possibly the most important in the long run, has been the encouragement of business representatives on governing bodies of schools. Second, there has been a range of initiatives which have given employers a greater say in the purposes which schools are expected to serve and in the means of attaining them.

4) The role of assessment

The government decided to develop a reformed system of examinations which would specify the standards against which the performance of individual schools and of pupils might be measured.

The 1988 Education Act legislated for assessment of pupils at the ages of 7, 11, 14 and 16, using attainment targets which all children should normally be expected to reach at these different ages in different subjects — especially in the «foundation subjects» of English, mathematics and science. The assessments relied partly on moderated teacher-assessment, but more importantly on national, externally administrated tests.

As a result of these national assessments, exactly where each child was in relation to all other children in terms of attainment in each subject. And it would be possible to say how each school was succeeding in these measured attainments in relationship to every other school. These assessments, have subsequently, provided the basis of national comparisons and league tables of schools.

In the reform of National Curriculum in the early 1990’s, it was decided that, because of public examinations at 16, the national assessment should finish at 14.

5) Inspection

For over one hundred years, there had been an independent inspection service. The inspectors were called Her Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI) to indicate that ultimately they were accountable to the Queen, not to the government from whom they ardently preserved their independence. Until about ten years ago, HMI numbered about 500. They inspected schools and they advised the government.

Senior HMIs were based at the Department of Education and Science (now the department for Education and Employment) but the big majority were scattered over the whole country so that they could advise locally but also be a source of information to central government. Indeed, they were known as «the ears and the eyes of the Minister».

Much of this has now changed as government has sought greater central control. HMI has been cut back to about one third of its previous size. The Chief Inspector is now a political appointment, not someone who has arisen from the ranks of an independent inspectorate. A new office has been created, the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED), to which HMI now belong and which is much more at the service of government policy.

Under OFSTED a very large army of «Ofsted inspectors» has been created — often teachers — who, after a brief training, are equipped to inspect schools. The initial plan was to inspect all 25,000 schools every four years and to publish a report which would be accessible to everyone. Every teacher is seen and graded. OFSTED is able to identify «failing schools» and «failing teachers».

It has been very difficult to get rid of very poor teachers. It is now hoped that, with more regular inspection and with clearer criteria for success and failure, it will be easier to sack teachers who are consistently under performing.

The recent changes are increasingly redescribed in managerial and business terms, as the educational system is managed as part of the drive to be more economically competitive.

However, one must be aware of the doubts and dismay of many in this «philosophy». First, there is little consideration of the aims of education — the values which make the relationship between teacher and learner an educational encounter, not one of «delivering a service». Second, the new language of «education» is drawn from an entirely different activity, that of business and management. The language of control, delivery, inputs and outputs, performance indicators and audits, defining products, testing against product specification, etc. Is not obviously appropriate to the development of thinking, inquiring, imagination, creativity, and so on. Third, the key role of the teacher is made peripheral to the overall design; the teacher becomes a «technician» of someone else’s curriculum.

The changing economic and social context in Britain seemed to require a closer integration of education, training, and employment; at the same time, a sharper focus on personal development; greater concentration of the partnership to include employers and parents; and a dominant position given to central government in stipulating outcomes were all factors which led the framework of the system is adapting to the new contexts.

a)The public system of education might be illustrated as follows:

b) Schools and the post-16 curriculum

The maintenance of such a curriculum has been a major function of the examination system at 16, which was originally designed as a preparation for the post-16 courses leading to A-level. It is taken in single subjects, usually not more than three. These three subjects, studied in depth, in turn constituted a preparation for the single or double subject honors degrees at university. In this way the shape of the curriculum for the majority has been determined by the needs of the minority aspiring to a university place. Alongside «A» Levels, there have been, more recently, «AS» (Advanced Supplementary) Level examinations. These are worth half an «A» Level and they enable very bright students to broaden their educational experience with a «contrasting» subject (for example, the science specialist might study a foreign language).

The present «A» and «AS» Level system, however, is thought to be in need of reform. First, it limits choice of subjects at 16 and 17 years, a time, when a more general education should be encouraged. Second, approximately 30% of students either drop out or fail — a mass failure rate amongst a group of young people from the top 30% of academic achievement who find that after two years they have no qualification. Third, the concentration on academic success thus conceived has little room for the vocationally relevant skills and personal qualities stressed by those employers who are critics of the education system. Fourth, there are over 600 «A» Level syllabuses from eight independent examination boards often with overlapping titles and content, making comparability of standards between Boards difficult.

The private sector

y 1997 8 per cent of the school population attended independent fee-paying schools, compared with under 6 per cent in 1979, and only 5 per cent in 1976. By the year 2000 the proportion may rise to almost 9 per cent, nearly back to the level in 1947 of 10 per cent. The recovery of private education in Britain is partly due to middle-class fears concerning comprehensive schools, but also to the mediocre quality possible in the state sector after decades of inadequate funding.

Although the percentage of those privately educated may be a small fraction of the total, its importance is disproportionate to its size, for this 8 per cent accounts for 23 per cent of all those passing A levels, and over 25 per cent of those gaining entry to university. Nearly 65 per cent of pupils leave fee-paying schools with one or more A levels, compared with only 14 per cent from comprehensives. Tellingly, this 8 per cent also accounts for 68 per cent of those gaining the highest grade in GCSE Physics. During the 1980s pupils at independent schools showed greater improvement in their examination results than those at state schools. In later life, those educated at fee-paying schools dominate the sources of state power and authority in government, law, the armed forces and finance.

The 'public' (in fact private, fee-paying) schools form the backbone of the independent sector. Of the several hundred public schools, the most famous are the 'Clarendon Nine', so named after a commission of inquiry into education in 1861. Their status lies in a fatally attractive combination of social superiority and antiquity, as the dates of their foundation indicate: Winchester (1382), Eton (1440), St Paul's (1509), Shrewsbury (1552), Westminster (1560), The Merchant Taylors' (1561), Rugby (1567), Harrow (1571) and Charterhouse (1611).

The golden age of the public schools, however, was the late nineteenth century, when most were founded. They were vital to the establishment of a particular set of values in the dominant professional middle classes. These values were reflected in the novel Tom Brown's Schooldays by Thomas Hughes, written in tribute to his own happy time at Rugby School. Its emphasis is on the making of gentlemen to enter one of the professions: law, medicine, the Church, the Civil Service or the colonial service. The concept of 'service', even if it only involved entering a profitable profession, was central to the public school ethos. A career in commerce, or 'mere money making' as it is referred to in Tom Brown's Schooldays, was not to be considered. As a result of such values, the public school system was traditional in its view of learning and deeply resistant to science and technology. Most public schools were located in the 'timeless' countryside, away from the vulgarity of industrial cities.

After 1945, when state-funded grammar schools were demonstrating equal or greater academic excellence, the public schools began to modernise themselves. During the 1970s most of them abolished beating and 'fagging', the system whereby new boys carried out menial tasks for senior boys, and many introduced girls into the sixth form, as a civilising influence. They made particular efforts to improve their academic and scientific quality. Traditionally boarding public schools were more popular, but since the 1970s there has been a progressive shift of balance in favour of day schools. Today only 16 per cent of pupils in private education attend boarding schools, and the number of boarders declines on average by 3 per cent each year.

Demand for public school education is now so great that many schools register pupils' names at birth. Eton maintains two lists, one for the children of 'old boys' and the other for outsiders. There are three applicants for every vacancy. Several other schools have two applicants for each vacancy, but they are careful not to expand to meet demand. In the words of one academic, 'Schools at the top of the system have a vested interest in being elitist. They would lose that characteristic if they expanded. To some extent they pride themselves on the length of their waiting lists.' This rush to private education is despite the steep rise in fees, 31 per cent between 1985 and 1988, and over 50 per cent between 1990 and 1997 when the average annual day fees were Ј5,700 and boarding fees double that figure. Sixty per cent of parents would probably send their children to fee-paying schools if they could afford to.

In order to obtain a place at a public school, children must take a competitive examination, called 'Common Entrance'. In order to pass it, most children destined for a public school education attend a preparatory (or 'prep') school until the age of 13.

Independent schools remain politically controversial. The Conservative Party believes in the fundamental freedom of parents to choose the best education for their children. The Labour Party disagrees, arguing that in reality only the wealthier citizens have this freedom of choice. In the words of Hugh Gaitskell, the Labour leader in 1953, 'We really cannot go on with a system in which wealthy parents are able to buy what they and most people believe to be a better education for their children. The system is wrong and must be changed.' But since then no Labour government has dared to abolish them.

There can be no doubt that a better academic education can be obtained in some of the public schools. In 1993 92 of the 100 schools with the best A-level results were fee-paying. But the argument that parents will not wish to pay once state schools offer equally good education is misleading, because independent schools offer social status also. Unfortunately education depends not only on quality schools but also on the home environment. The background from which pupils come greatly affects the encouragement they receive to study. Middle-class parents are likely to be better able, and more concerned, to support their children's study than low-income parents who themselves feel they failed at school. State-maintained schools must operate with fewer resources, and in more difficult circumstances, particularly in low-income areas. In addition, the public school system creams off many of the ablest teachers from the state sector.

The public school system is socially divisive, breeding an atmosphere of elitism and leaving some outside the system feeling socially or intellectually inferior, and in some cases intimidated by the prestige attached to public schools. The system fosters a distinct culture, one based not only upon social superiority but also upon deference. As one leading journalist, Jeremy Paxman, himself an ex-public schoolboy remarked, The purpose of a public school education is to teach you to respect people you don't respect.' In the words of Anthony Sampson, himself an ex-pupil of Westminster, the public school elite 'reinforces and perpetuates a class system whose divisions run through all British institutions, separating language, attitudes and motivations'.

Those who attend these schools continue to dominate the institutions at the heart of the British state, and seem likely to do so for some time to come. At the beginning of the 1990s public schools accounted for 22 out of 24 of the army's top generals, two-thirds of the Bank of England's external directors, 33 out of 39 top English judges, and ambassadors in the 15 most important diplomatic missions abroad. Of the 200 richest people in Britain no fewer than 35 had attended Eton. Eton and Winchester continue to dominate the public school scene, and the wider world beyond. As Sampson asks, 'Can the products of two schools (Winchester and Eton), it might be asked, really effectively represent the other 99.5 per cent of the people in this diverse country who went to neither mediaeval foundation?' The concept of service was once at the heart of the public school ethos, but it is questionable whether it still is. A senior Anglican bishop noted in 1997, 'A headmaster told me recently that the whole concept of service had gone. Now they all want to become merchant bankers and lawyers.'

There are two arguments that qualify the merit of the public schools, apart from the criticism that they are socially divisive. It is inconceivable that the very best intellectual material of the country resides solely among those able to attend such schools. If one accepts that the brightest and best pupils are in fact spread across the social spectrum, one must conclude that an elitist system of education based primarily upon wealth rather than ability must involve enormous wastage. The other serious qualification regards the public school ethos which is so rooted in tradition, authority and a narrow idea of 'gentlemanly' professions. Even a century after it tried to turn its pupils into gentlemen, the public school culture still discourages, possibly unconsciously, its pupils from entering industry. 'It is no accident,' Sampson comments, 'that most formidable industrialists in Britain come from right outside the public school system, and many from right outside Britain.'

Britain will be unable to harness its real intellectual potential until it can break loose from a divisive culture that should belong in the past, and can create its future elite from the nation's schoolchildren as a whole. In 1996 a radical Conservative politician argued for turning public schools into centres of excellence which would admit children solely on ability, regardless of wealth or social background, with the help of government funding. It would be a way of using the best of the private sector for the nation as a whole. It is just such an idea that Labour might find attractive, if it is able to tackle the more widespread and fundamental shortcomings of the state education system.

Further and higher education

reparation for adult life» includes training in the skills required for a job. These skills can be pitched at different levels — highly job-specific and not requiring much thought in their application, or «generalisable» and applicable to different kinds of employment.

Vocational courses are concerned with the teaching of job-related skills, whether specific or generalisable. They can be based in industry, and «open learning» techniques make this increasingly likely, although in the past, they have normally been taught in colleges of further education, with students given day release from work. Vocational training has not been an activity for schools. But some critics think that schools should provide it for non-academic pupils. One major initiative back in 1982, was the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative (TVEI) in which schools received money if they were able to build into the curriculum vocationally-related content ant activities — more technology, business studies, industry related work and visits, etc. But all this got lost in 1988 with the imposition of a National Curriculum was reformed, providing opportunities for vocational studies to be introduced at 14.

But the real changes in vocational training were to be seen outside the schools. The curriculum in colleges of further education has been closely determined by vocational examination bodies which decide what the student should be able to do in order to receive a qualification as, for example, a plumber or a hairdresser. These qualifications were pitched at different levels — from relatively low-skilled operative to higher-skilled craft and technician. Obtaining these qualifications often required an apprenticeship, with day release in a college of further education for more theoretical study.

Vocational training always has had a relatively low status in Britain. The «practical» and the «vocational» have seldom given access to university or to the prestigious and professional jobs.

Further education has traditionally been characterised by part-time vocational courses for those who leave school at the age of 16 but need to acquire a skill, be that in the manual, technical or clerical field. In all, about three million students enrol each year in part-time courses at further education (FE) colleges, some released by their employers and a greater number unemployed. In addition there have always been a much smaller proportion in full-time training. In 1985 this figure was a meagre 400,000, but by 1995 this had doubled. Given Labour's emphasis on improving the skills level of all school-leavers, this expansion will continue. Vocational training, most of which is conducted at the country's 550 further education colleges is bound to be an important component.

Higher education has also undergone a massive expansion. In 1985 only 573,000, 16 per cent of young people, were enrolled in full-time higher education. Ten years later the number was 1,150,000, no less than 30 per cent of their age group.

This massive expansion was achieved by greatly enlarging access to undergraduate courses, but also by authorising the old polytechnics to grant their own degree awards, and also to rename themselves as universities. Thus there are today 90 universities, compared with 47 in 1990, and only seventeen in 1945. They fall into five broad categories: the medieval English foundations, the medieval Scottish ones, the nineteenth-century 'redbrick' ones, the twentieth-century 'plate-glass' ones, and finally the previous polytechnics. They are all private institutions, receiving direct grants from central government.

Oxford and Cambridge, founded in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries respectively, are easily the most famous of Britain's universities. Today 'Oxbridge', as the two together are known, educate less than one-twentieth of Britain's total university student population. But they continue to attract many of the best brains and to mesmerise an even greater number, partly on account of their prestige, but also on account of the seductive beauty of many of their buildings and surroundings.

Both universities grew gradually, as federations of independent colleges, most of which were founded in the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In both universities, however, new colleges are periodically established, for example Green College, Oxford (1979) and Robinson College, Cambridge (1977).

In the nineteenth century more universities were established to respond to the greatly increased demand for educated people as a result of the Industrial Revolution and the expansion of Britain's overseas empire. Many of these were sited in the industrial centres, for example Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham, Newcastle, Liverpool and Bristol.

With the expansion of higher education in the 1960s 'plate-glass ' universities were established, some named after counties or regions rather than old cities, for example Sussex, Kent, East Anglia and Strathclyde. Over 50 polytechnics and similar higher education institutes acquired university status in 1992. There is also a highly successful Open University, which provides every person in Britain with the opportunity to study for a degree, without leaving their home. It is particularly designed for adults who missed the opportunity for higher education earlier in life. It conducts learning through correspondence, radio and television, and also through local study centres.

University examinations are for Bachelor of Arts, or of Science (BA or BSc) on completion of the undergraduate course, and Master of Arts or of Science (MA or MSc) on completion of postgraduate work, usually a one- or two-year course involving some original research. Some students continue to complete a three-year perio of original research for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). The bachelor degree is normal classed, with about 5 per cent normally gaining First, about 30 per cent gaining an Upper Seconi or 2.1, perhaps 40 per cent gaining a Lower Second, or 2.2, and the balance getting either i Third, a Pass or failing. Approximately 15 per cei fail to complete their degree course.

In addition there are a large number of specialis higher education institutions in the realm of the performing and visual arts. For example, there a four leading conservatories: the Royal Academy Music, the Royal College of Music, Trinity College of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music.

There are a large number of art colleges, of whi the most famous is the Royal College of Art, where both Henry Moore and David Hockney once studied. Other colleges cater for dance, film-making and other specialist areas in arts.

In spite of the high fees, Britain's universities, Fl colleges and English language schools host a number of foreign students, in 1996 there were fewer than 158,000.

Female undergraduates have greatly increased proportionately in recent years. In the mid-1960 they were only 28 per cent of the intake, became 41 per cent by the early 1980s, and were 51 per cent by 1996. There is still an unfortunate separation of the sexes in fields of chosen study, arising from occupational tradition and social expectations. Caring for others is still a 'proper' career for women; building bridges, it seems, is not. Unless one believes women's brains are better geared to nursing and other forms of caring and men's to bridge-building, one must conclude that social expectations still hinder women and men from realising their potential. Students from poorer backgrounds are seriously underrepresented in higher education. Although more in social categories C, D and E are now enrolled, it is the more prosperous social categories A and B which have benefited most from university expansion. For Labour there are two issues here:

equality of opportunity, and maximising all of society's intellectual potential.

Ethnic minorities' representation is growing: 1 3 per cent in 1996 compared with only 10.7 per cent in 1990. It is noteworthy that their university representation exceeds their proportion within the whole population, a measure of their commitment to higher education.

In 1988 a new funding body, the University Funding Council, was established, with power to require universities to produce a certain number of qualified people in specific fields. It is under the UFC's watchful eye that the universities have been forced to double their student intake, and each university department is assessed on its performance and quality. The fear, of course, is that the greatly increased quantity of students that universities must now take might lead to a loss of academic quality.

Expansion has led to a growing funding gap. Universities have been forced to seek sponsorship from the commercial world, wealthy patrons and also from their alumni. The Conservative Party also decided to reduce maintenance grants but to offer students loans in order to finance their studies. However, the funding gap has continued to grow and Labour shocked many who had voted for it by introducing tuition fees at 1,000 pounds per annum in 1998. Although poorer students were to be exempted it was feared that, even with student loans, up to 10 per cent of those planning to go to university would abandon the idea. One effect of the financial burden is that more students are living at home while continuing their studies: about 50 per cent at the ex-polytechnics, but only 15 per cent at the older universities.

Today many university science and technology departments, for example at Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, Imperial College London, and Strathclyde, are among the best in Europe. The concern is whether they will continue to be so in the future. Academics' pay has fallen so far behinc other professions and behind academic salaries elsewhere, that many of the best brains have gon< abroad. Adequate pay and sufficient research funding to keep the best in Britain remains a majo challenge.

As with the schools system, so also with higher education: there is a real problem about the exclusivity of Britain's two oldest universities. While Oxbridge is no longer the preserve of a social elite it retains its exclusive, narrow and spell-binding culture. Together with the public school system, it creates a narrow social and intellectual channel from which the nation's leaders are almost exclusively drawn. In 1996 few people were in top jobs in the Civil Service, the armed forces, the law or finance, who had not been either to a public school or Oxbridge, or to both.

The problem is not the quality of education offered either in the independent schools or Oxbridge. The problem is cultural. Can the products of such exclusive establishments remain closely in touch with the remaining 95 per cent of the population? If the expectation is that Oxbridge, particularly, will continue to dominate the controlling positions in the state and economy, is the country ignoring equal talent which does not have the Oxbridge label? As with the specialisation at the age of 16 for A levels, the danger is that Britain's governing elite is too narrow, both in the kind of education and where it was acquired. It is just possible that the new Labour government, which itself reflects a much wider field of life experience in Britain, will mark the beginning of significantly fuller popular participation in the controlling institutions of state.

Present situation

The educational system — its organization, its control, its content — is changing rapidly to meet the perceived needs of the country — the need to improve standards and to respond to a rapidly changing and competitive economy. Those changes might be summarized in the following way.

First, there is much greater central control over what is taught. Second, what is taught is seen in rather traditional terms — organized in terms of subjects rather than in response to the learning needs of the pupils. Third, however, there is an attempt to be responsive to the economic needs of the country, with an emphasis upon vocational studies and training. Fourth, there is a rapid expansion of those who stay in education beyond the compulsory age, making use of the «three-track system» of «A» Level, GNVQ (General National Vocational Qualifications) and NVQ (National Vocational Qualifications). Fifth, although the content of education is centrally controlled, its «delivery» pays homage to the «market» by encouraging choice between different institutions so that funding follows popular choice (i.e. the more popular the school with parents, the more money it gets, thereby providing an incentive to schools and colleges to improve their performance.

Education under Labour

ducation was the central theme of the new Labour government. It promised a huge range of improvements: high-quality education for all four-year-olds whose parents wanted it and lower pupil-teacher ratios, in particular that children up to the age of eight children would never be in classes of over 30 pupils. It also declared that all children at primary school would spend one hour each day on reading and writing, and another hour each day on numeracy, the basic skills for all employment. When Labour took office only 57 per cent of children reached national literacy targets by the time they left primary school, and only 55 per cent reached similar targets in maths. The government pledged to raise these proportions to 80 per cent and 75 per cent respectively. It also established a new central authority responsible for both qualifications and the curriculum, to ensure that these were, in the government's own words, 'high quality, coherent and flexible'. It warned that it intended to evolve a single certificate to replace A levels and vocational qualifications, and possibly to reflect a broad range of study rather than the narrow specialism of the A-level system. Because 30 per cent of students who started A-level courses failed to acquire one, it also wanted to create a more flexible system that would allow students still to attain recognised standards of education and training on the road to A levels. However, unlike France or Germany, an increasing proportion of those taking exams at this standard were actually passing.

The government also promised to improve the quality of the teaching staff, with a mandatory qualification for all newly appointed heads of schools, to improve teacher training, to establish a General Teaching Council, which would restore teacher morale and raise standards, and to introduce more effective means of removing inefficient teachers. It also promised to look at the growing problem of boys underachieving at school compared with girls. Finally, Labour asked for its record to be judged at the end of its first term in office, in 2002.

Questions

1. When do the british start their education?

2. Do you agree that the british education has problems?

3. What were the lacks of British education?

4. Who can study in public schools?

5. Does the word «public» reflect the real principle of that schools?

6. What political acts became a turning point in British education?

7. What is the most well-spread opinion about the vocational courses?

8. What do you think about the quality of higher education in Britain?

9. What are the main principles of the Labour Patry (concerning education)

10. How had the role of parents in the children’s education changed?

11. How did the changing economic and social situation influence the system of education?

12. What are the most prestigeous schools in Britain?

13. Are there students from other countries in British schools and universities?

14. Is the nursary school compulsory?

15. How do you think: do the Concervative principles of education differ from that of Labour?

16. What are the aims of education in Britain today?

17. Did the level of education become higher after the reforms?

18. What is the GCSE?

19. What types of schools does the british system of education includes?

20. Would you like to study in Britain? (Give your argument for or against it).

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Экзаменационная: Education in Great Britain

1.Education.

The British education system has much in common with that in Europe,

that :

• Full-time education is compulsory for all children in the middle teenage years. Parents are required by law to see that their children receive full-time education, at school or elsewhere, between the ages of 5 and 16 in England, Scotland and Wales 4 and 16 in Northern Ireland.

• The academic year begins at the end of summer.

Compulsory education is free charge, though parents may choose a private school and spend their money on education their children. About 93% of pupils receive free education from public funds, while the others attend independent schools financed by fees paid by parents.

• There are three stages of schooling with children, moving from primary school to secondary school. The third stage provides further and higher education, technical college of higher education and universities.

There is, however, quite a lot that distinguishes education in Britain from the way it works in other countries. The most important distinguishing features are the lack of uniformity and comparatively little central control. There are three separate government departments managing education: the Departments for Education and Employment is responsible for England and Wales alone; Scotland and Northern Ireland retain control over the education within their respective countries. None of these bodies exercises much control over the details does not prescribe a detailed program of learning, books and materials to be used, nor does it dictate the exact hours of the school day, the exact days of holidays, school’s finance management and such lick. As many details possible are left to the discretion of the individual institution.

Many distinctive characteristics of British education can be ascribed at least partly, to public school tradition. The present-day level of “grass-root” independence as well as different approach to education has been greatly influenced by the philosophy that a school is its own community. The 19th century public schools educated the sons of the upper and upper-middle classes and the main aim of schooling was to prepare young men to take up positions in the higher ranks of the army, the Church, to fill top-jobs in business, the legal profession, the civil serves and politics. To meet this aim the emphasis was made on “character-building” and the development of “team spirit” rather than on academic achievement.

Such schools were (and still often are) mainly boarding establishments, so they had a deep and lasting influence on their pupils, consequently, public-school leaves for formed a closed group entry into which was difficult, the ruling elite the core of the Establishment.

The 20th century brought education and its possibilities for social advanced within everybody’s reach, and new, state schools naturally tended to copy the features of the public schools. So today, in typically British fashion, learning for its own sake, rather than for any practical purpose is still been given a high value. As distinct from most other countries, a relatively stronger emphasis is on the quality of person that education produces rather than helping people to develop useful knowledge and skills. In other words, the general style of teaching is to develop understanding rather than acquiring factual knowledge and learning to apply this knowledge to specific tasks.

2.Public Schools – For Whom?

About five per cent of children are educated privately in what is rather confusingly called public schools. These are the schools for the privileged. There are about 500 public schools in England and Wales most of them single-sex. About half of them are for girls.

The schools, such as Eton, Harrow, Rugby and Winchester, are famous for their ability to lay the foundation of a successful future by giving their pupils self- confidence, the right accent, a good academic background and, perhaps most important of all, the right friends and contacts. People who went to one of the public schools never call themselves school-leaves. They talk about “the old school tie” and “the old boy network”. They are just old boys or old girls. The fees are high and only very rich families can afford to pay so much. Public schools educate the ruling class of England. One such school is Gordonstoun, which the Prince of Wales, the elder son of the Queen, left in 1968. Harrow School is famous as the place where Winston Churchill was educated, as well as six other Prime Ministers of England, the poet Lord Byron, the playwright Richard Sheridan and many other prominent people.

Public schools are free from state control. They are independent. Most of them are boarding schools. The education is of a high quality; the discipline is very strict. The system of education is the same: the most able go ahead.

These schools accept pupils from preparatory schools at about 11 or 13 years of age usually on the basis of an examination, known as Common Entrance. There are three sittings of Common Entrance every year in February, June and November. Scholarships are rarely awarded on the results of Common Entrance. The fundamental requirements are very high. At 18 most public school-leaves, gain entry to universities.

3.Schooling.

Great Britain does not have a written constitution, so there are no constitutional provisions for education. The system of education is determined by the National Education Acts.

Schools in England are supported from public funds paid to the local education authorities. These local education authorities are responsible for organizing the schools in their areas.

Let’s outline the basic features of public education in Britain. Firstly, there are wide variations between one part of the country and another. For most educational purposes England and Wales are treated as one unit, though the system in Wales is a little different from that of England. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own education systems.

Secondly, education in Britain mirrors the country’s social system: it is class-divided and selective. The first division is between those who pay and those who do not pay. The majority of schools in Britain are supported by public funds and the education provided is free. They are maintained schools, but there are also a considerable number of public schools. Parents have to pay fees to send their children to these schools. The fees are high. As matter of fact, only very rich families can send their children to public schools. In some parts of Britain they still keep the old system of grammar schools, which are selective. But most secondary schools in Britain, which are called comprehensive schools, are not selective – you don’t have to pass an exam to go there.

Another important feature of schooling in Britain is the variety of opportunities offered to schoolchildren. The English school syllabus is divided into Arts and Sciences, which determine the division of the secondary school pupils into study groups: a Science pupil will study Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Economics, Technical Drawing, Biology, geography; an Art pupil will do English Language and Literature, History, foreign languages, Music, Art, Drama. Besides these subjects they must do some general education subjects like Physical Education, Home Economics for girls, and Technical subjects for boys, General Science. Computers play an important part in education. The system of options exists in all kinds of secondary schools.

The National Curriculum, which was introduced in 1988, sets out detail the subjects that children should study and the levels of achievement they should reach by the ages of 7, 11, 14, and 16, when they are tested. Until that year headmasters and headmistresses of schools were given a great deal of freedom in deciding what subjects to teach and how to do it in their schools so that there was really no central, control at all over individual schools. The National Curriculum does not apply in Scotland, where each school decides what subjects it will teach.

After the age of 16 a growing number of school students are staying on at school, some until 18 or 19, the age of entry into higher education in universities, Polytechnics or colleges. Schools in Britain provide careers guidance. A specially trained person called careers advisor or careers officer helps school students to decide what job they want to do and how they can achieve it.

British university courses are rather short, generally lasting for 3 years. The cost of education depends on the college or university and special which one chooses.

4.Education in Britain.

5.Pre-primary and Primary Education.

In some of England there are nursery schools for children under 5 years of age. Some children between two and five receive education in nursery classes or in infants’ classes in primary schools. Many children attend informal pre-school playgroups organized by parents in private homes. Nursery schools are staffed with teachers and students in training. There are all kinds of toys to keep the children busy from 9 o’clock in the morning till 4 o’clock in the afternoon while their parents are at work. Here the babies play, lunch and sleep. They can run about and play in safety with someone keeping an eye on them.

For day nurseries, which remain open all the year round, the parents pay according to their income. The local education authority’s nurseries are free. But only about three children in 100 can go to them: there aren’t enough places and the waiting lists are rather long.

Most children start school at five in primary school. A primary school may be divided into two parts-infants and juniors. At infants school reading, writing and arithmetic are taught for about 20 minutes a day during the first year, gradually increasing to about 2 hours in their last year. There is usually no written timetable. Much time is spent in modeling from clay or drawing, reading or singing.

By the time children are ready for the junior school they will be able to read and write, do simple addition and subtraction of numbers.

At seven children go on from the infants’ school to the junior school. This marks the transition from play to “real work”. The children have set periods of arithmetic, reading and composition which are all Eleven Plus subjects. History, Geography, Nature Study, Art and Music, Physical Education, Swimming are also on the timetable.

Pupils are streamed, according to their ability to learn into, A, B, C and D streams. The least gifted are in the D stream. Formerly towards the end of their fourth year the pupils wrote their Eleven Plus Examination. The hated 11 + examination was a selective procedure on which not only the pupil’s future schooling but their future careers depended. The abolition of selection at Eleven plus Examination brought to life comprehensive schools where pupils can get secondary education.

6.Secondary Education.

The majority of state secondary school pupils in England and Wales attend comprehensive schools. These largely take pupils without reference to ability or aptitude and provide a wide range of secondary education for all or most children in a district. Schools take those, who are the 11 to 18 age-range, middle schools (8 to 14), and schools with an age-range from 11 to 16. Most other state-educated children in England attend grammar or secondary modern schools, to which they are allocated after selection procedures at the age of 11.

Before 1965 a selective system of secondary education existed in England. Under that system a child of 11 had to take an exam, which consisted of intelligence tests covering linguistic, mathematical and general knowledge which was to be taken by children in the last year of primary schooling. The object was to select between academic and non-academic children. Those who did well in the examination went to a grammar school, while those who failed went to a secondary modern school and technical college. Grammar schools prepared children for national examinations such as the GCE at O level and A-level. These examinations qualified children for the better jobs, and for entry higher education and the professions. The education in secondary modern schools was based on practical schooling, which would allow entry into a variety of skilled and unskilled jobs.

Many people complained that it was wrong for a person’s future to be decided at a so young age. The children who went to “secondary moderns” were seen as “failures”. More over, it was noticed that the children who passed this exam were almost all from middle-class families. The Labor Party, returned to power in 1965, abolished the 11+ and tried to introduce the non-selective education system in the form of “comprehensive” schools, that would provide schooling for children of all ability levels and from all social backgrounds, ideally under one roof. The final choice between selective and non-selective schooling, though, was left to LEAS that controlled the provision of school education in the country. Some authorities decided for comprehensive, while others retained grammar schools and secondary moderns.

In the late 1980s the Conservative government introduced another major change. Schools cloud now decide whether to remain as LEA-maintained schools or to “opt-out” of the control of the LEA and put themselves directly under the control of the government department. These “grant-maintained” schools were financed directly by central government. This did not mean, however, that there was more central control: grant-maintained schools did not have to ask anybody else about how to spend their money.

A recent development in education administration in England and Wales in the School Standards and Framework Act passed in July 1998. The Act established that from 1.09.1999 all state school education authorities with the ending of the separate category of grant maintained status.

There are some grant-maintained or voluntary aided schools, called City Technology Colleges. In 1999 there were 15 City Technology Colleges in England. These are non-fee-paying independent secondary schools created by a partnership of government and private sector sponsors. The promoters own or lease the schools, employ teachers and make substantial contributions to the costs of building and equipment. The colleges teach the NC, but with an emphasis on mathematics, technology and science.

So, today three types of state schools mainly provide secondary education: secondary modern schools grammar schools and comprehensive schools. There should also be mentioned another type of schools, called specialist schools. The specialist school programmer in England was launched in 1993. Specialist schools are state secondary schools specializing in technology, science and mathematics; modern foreign languages; sports; arts.

State schools are absolutely free (including all textbooks and exercise books) and generally co-educational.

Under the NC a greater emphasis at the secondary level is laid on science and technology. Accordingly, ten subjects have to be studied: English, history, geography, mathematics, science, a modern foreign language, technology, music, art and physical education. For special attention there of these subjects (called “core subjects”): English, science, mathematics and seven other subjects are called “foundation or statuary subjects”. Besides, subjects are grouped into departments and teachers work in teams and to plan work.

Most common departments are:

• Humanities Departments: geography, history, economics, English literature, drama, social science;

• Science Department: chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics;

• Language Department: German, French, English;

• Craft Design and Technology Departments: information and communications technology, computing, home economics and photography.

The latter brings together the practical subjects like cooing, woodwork, sewing, and metalwork with the new technology used in those fields. Students can design a T-shirt on computer using graphics software and make-up the T-shirt design. Students can also look at way to market their product, thus linking all disciplines. This subject’s area exemplifies the process approach to learning introduced by the NC.

It is worth mentioning here the growing importance of personal and Social Education. Since the 1970s there has been an emphasis on “pastoral” care, education in areas related to life skills such as health (this includes looking at drug, discussing physical changes related to poverty, sex education and relationship). There are usually one or two lessons a week, from primary school through to sixth form and they are an essential part of the school’s aim to prepare students to life in society.

Education in Britain is not solely concentrated on academic study. Great value is placed on visits and activities like organizing the school club or field trips, which are educational in a more general sense. The organization of these activities by teachers is very much taken for granted in the British school system. Some teachers give up their free time, evenings and weekends to do this “unpaid” work. At Christmas teachers organized concerts, parties and general festivities. It is also considered a good thing to be “seen” to be doing this extra work since it is fairly essential for securing promotion in the school hierarchy.

Classes of pupils are called “forms” (though it has recently become common to refer to “years”) and are numbered from one to beginning with first form. Nearly all schools work a five-day week and are closed on Saturdays. The day starts at nine o’clock and finishes between three and four. The lunch break usually lasts about an hour-and-a-quarter. Nearly two-thirds of pupils have lunch provided by the school. Parents pay for this except for the 15 per cent who are rated poor enough and have it for free. Other children either go home for lunch or take sandwiches.

Schools usually divide their year into tree “terms” starting at the beginning of September:

Passage from one year to the next one is automatic. At the age of 14 pupils are tested in English, mathematics and science, as well as in statutory subjects. At that same age in the third or forth pupils begin to choose their exam subjects and work for two years to prepare for their qualifications. The exams are usually taken in fifth form at the age of 16, which is a school-leaving age. The actual written exams are set by outside examiners, but they must be approved by the government and comply with national guidelines. There are several examination boards in Britain and each school decided that board’s exam its pupils take. Most exams last for two hours, marks are given for each exams separately and are graded from A to G (grades A, B, C are considered to be “good” marks).

16 are an important age for school-leaves because they have to make key decisions as to their future lives and careers. There is a number of choices for them.

7.Life at School.

The school year is divided into terms, three months each, named after seasons: autumn term, winter term and spring term.

The autumn term starts on the first Tuesday morning in September. In July schools break up for eight weeks.

Life at school is more or less similar everywhere. Each group of 30 pupils is the responsibility of a form tutor. Each school day is divided into periods of 40-50 minutes, time for various lessons with 10-20 minutes breaks between them. It might be interesting for you to see the “Bell Times” at Lawnswood school in Leads.

Bell Times

8.40 a.m. – School begins

8.45 a.m. – Registration

8.50 a.m. – Assembly bell

9.00 a.m. – Pupils move to lessons

9.05 a.m. – Lesson 1

9.45 a.m. - Lesson 2

10.25 a.m. – Lesson 3

11.25 a.m. – Lesson 3

11.05 a.m. – Break

11.25 a.m. – Pupils move to lessons

11.30 a.m. – Lesson 4

12.10 p.m. – Lesson 5

12.50 p.m. – Lunch time

1.40 p.m. – Afternoon school begins

1.45 p.m. – Registration

1.50 p.m. – Lesson 6

2.30 p. m. Lesson 7

3.10 p.m. – End of normal lessons

3.10 p.m. – Start of additional lessons, clubs, societies, team practice, detentions.

On important occasions such as end of term or national holiday, called in English schools speech-days pupils are gathered in the assembly or hall.

Most of the pupil’s time is spent in a classroom equipped with desks and a blackboard nowadays often called chalkboard because normally it is brown or green. The desks are arranged in rows, the space between the rows is called an aisle.

In addition to classrooms there are laboratories for Physics, Chemistry and Biology. Technical rooms are for Woodwork, Metalwork, Technical Drawing. There are rooms for computer studies. Many young people use them for school exercise. They are now able to write their own games as well. The Physical Education lessons are conducted at the gymnasium, games-hall or at the playground in front of the school building. There are also language laboratories and house craft rooms. Every school has a library and a school canteen. In student common room boys and girls can relax during the breaks and lunchtime the Staff common room is for teachers. In case of illness a schoolchild may go to the sick room.

Pupils at many secondary schools Britain have to wear a school uniform. This usually means a white blouse for girls (perhaps with a tie), with a dark-colored skirt and pullover. Boys wear a shirt and tie, dark trousers and dark-colored pullovers. Pupils also wear blazers-a kind of jacket-with the school badge on the pocket. They often have to wear some kind of hat on the way to and from school-caps for boys and berets or some other kind of hat for girls shoes are usually black or brown. And no high heels!

Young people in Britain often don’t like their school uniform, especially the hats and shoes. Sometimes they do not wear the right clothes. Schools will often give them a warning the first time that this happens but then will punish them if they continue not to wear the correct uniform. Senior student don’t have to wear their school uniform.

It sounds logical to say that the school’s function is to train a pupil’s mind and his character should be formed at home. Teachers would be pleased if the problem could be solved so easily. But children don’t leave their characters at home when their minds go to school. Many of them have personality problems of one kind or another.

The pupils who violate various school regulations may be punished in the following ways: for lateness, truancy they may be reported to the Headmaster or named in school assembly. They may be detained in school after ordinary hours.

Corporal punishment has recently been banned in state schools. But in most public schools it is still allowed. Caning is the usual punishment for serious misbehavior in class, damage and vandalism. Many teachers remark that standards of discipline have fallen since corporal punishment was banned by the government.

You may want to know whether there are any rewards and prizes for the best pupils. Of course, there are. Each school has its system of rewards: medals and prizes.

8.Social, Cultural and Sporting Life

Each school or sixth-form college has its School or College Council. It helps to plan the policy for the whole school. It organizes the social and cultural life at the school.

School Councils in many schools and colleges are chaired by a student and have a majority of student members. They run discos and parties, stage drama productions and decorate the student common room. Music-making is part of school life. Some students help in local hospitals, homes for the handicapped and elderly people.

There are many clubs and societies. Very popular, especially with senior pupils, is а school debating society.

Most clubs meet regularly: daily, weekly or monthly, at lunch time or after school. Extracurricular activities include various outings, visits to places of interest and dances. School choirs and orchestras give regular concerts. Sports are very popular too: running, jogging, swimming, self-defence, football, soccer, badminton, aerobics, rugby, etc.

There are many national voluntary youth organizations in Britain. You have probably read about the Scout and Girl Guides Associations. There are some clubs run by the churches. There three pre-service organizations (the Sea Cadet Corps, Army, Cadet Force and Air Training Corps) are not very large. Their activities are related to the work of the armed forces.

But the largest youth organizations, as you probably know, are the associations of the Boy Scouts and the Girl Guides. There are about 1,300,000 boys and girls in them. The movement of Boy Scouts was founded by General Baden-Powell in 1908 and began to spring up in almost every town and village of the British Isles. Its aim is to help I а Scout (аboy from 8 to 18) to develop into а good man and а useful citizen. He must be able to handle sails, to use а compass, to lay and light а fire out of doors, he must know first aid and develop his interest in music, literature, drama, arts and films. A Scout is а friend to animals, he is 'clean in thought, word and deed’. He must obey the Scout Law.

The Girl Guides Association was founded by Lord Baden-Powell in 1910. It is divided into three sections: Brownies (from 7,5 tо 11), Guides (age 11 — 16) and Rangers (age 16 — 21). The programmer of training is planned to develop intelligence and practical skills inculding cookery, needle-work and childcare. The training and the Law are much the same as those of the Scouts. Like а Scout а Girl Guide must be а friend to animals. She must be ‘pure in thought, word and deed’. She must be loyal to God and the Queen.

There are several youth organizations associated with political parties. The Youth Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (YCND) unites thousands of young people of Great Britain. It co-operates with the National Union of Students and many other youth organizations. It organizes mass rallies and meetings, demonstrations, marches of protest, festivals.

9.Life at College and University

The academic year in Britain' s universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education is divided into three terms, which usually run from the beginning of October to the middle of December, from the middle of January to the end of March, and from the middle of April to the end of June or the beginning of July.

There are about one hundred universities in Britain. The oldest and best-known universities are located in Oxford, Cambridge, London, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Southampton, Cardiff, Bristol, Birmingham.

Good А-level results in at least two subjects are necessary to get а place at а university. However, good exam passes alone are not enough. Universities choose their students after interviews. For all British citizens а place at а university brings with it а grant from their local education authority.

English universities greatly differ from each other. They differ in date of foundation, size, history, tradition, general organization, methods of instruction, way of student life.

After three years of study а university graduate will leave with the Degree of Bachelor of Arts, Science, Engineering, Medicine, etc. Later he may continue to take а Master’s Degree and then а Doctor’s Degree. Research is an important feature of university work.

The two intellectual eyes of Britain — Oxford and Cam- bridge Universities — date from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

The Scottish universities of St. Andrews, Glasgow, Аberdeen and Edinburgh date from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

In the nineteenth and the early part of the twentieth centuries the so-called Redbrick universities were founded. These include London, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield and Birmingham. During the late sixties and early seventies some 20 'new' universities were set up. Sometimes they are called 'concrete and glass' universities. Among them are the universities of Sussex, York, East Anglia and some others.

During these years the Government set up thirty Polytechnics. The Polytechnics, like the universities, offer first and higher degrees. Some of them offer full-time and sandwich courses. Colleges of Education provide two-year courses in teacher education or sometimes three years if the graduate specializes in some particular subject.

Some of those who decide to leave school at the age of 16 may go tоа further education college where they can follow а course in typing, engineering, town planning, cooking, or hairdressing, full-time or part-time. Further education colleges have strong ties with commerce and industry.

There is an interesting form of studies which is called the Open University. It is intended for people who study in their own free time and who attend" lectures by watching television and listening to the radio. They keep in touch by phone and letter with their tutors and attend summer schools. The Open University students have nо formal qualifications and would be unable to enter ordinary universities.

Some 80,000 overseas students study at British universities or further education colleges or train in nursing, law, banking or in industry.

10.Higher education.

As has been mentioned above, there is a considerable enthusiasm for post-school education in Britain. The aim of the government is to increase the number of students who enter into higher education. The driving force for this has been mainly economic. It is assumed that the more people who study at degree level, the more likely the country is to succeed economically. A large proportion of young people – about a third in England and Wales and almost half in Scotland – continue in education at a more A-level beyond the age of 18. The higher education sector provides a variety of courses up to degree and postgraduate degree level, and careers out research. It increasingly caters for older students; over 50% of students in 1999 were aged 25 and over and many studied part-time. Nearly every university offers access and foundation courses before enrolment on a course of higher education of prospective students who do not have the standard entry qualifications.

Higher education in Britain is traditionally associated with universities, though education of University standard is also given in other institutions such as colleges and institutes of higher education, which have the power to award their own degrees.

The only exception to state universities is the small University of Buckingham which concentrates on law, and which draws most of its students of overseas.

All universities in England and Wales are state universities (this includes Oxford and Cambridge).

English universities can be broadly classified into three types. First come the ancient universities of Oxford and Cambridge that date from the 12th century and that until 1828 were virtually the only English universities.

11.Oxbridge

Oxford and Cambridge are the oldest and most prestigious universities in Great Britain. They are often called collectively Oxbridge. Both universities are independent. Only the education elite go to Oxford or Cambridge. Most of their students are former public schools leavers.

The normal length of the degree course is three years, after which the students take the Degree of Bachelor of Arts (В.А.). Some courses, such as languages or medicine, bay be one or two years longer. The students may work for other degrees as well. The degrees are awarded at public degree ceremonies'. Oxford and Cambridge cling to their traditions, such as the use of Latin at degree ceremonies. Full academic dress is worn at examinations.

Oxford and Cambridge universities consist of а number of colleges. Each college is different, but in many ways they are alike. Each

college has its name, its coat of arms. Each college is governed by a Master. The larger ones have more than 400 members, the smallest colleges have less than 30. Each college offers teaching in а wide range of subjects. Within, the college one will normally find а chapel, а dining hall, а library, rooms for undergraduates, fellows and the Master, and also rooms for teaching purposes.

Oxford is one of the oldest universities in Europe. It is the second largest in Britain, after I.ondon. The town of Oxford is first mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 911 А.D. and it was popular with the early English kings (Richard Coeur de Lion' was probably here). The university's earliest charter" is dated tо 1213.

There are now twenty-four colleges for men, five for women and another five which have both men and women members, many from overseas studying for higher degrees. Among the oldest colleges are University College, All Souls and Christ Church.

The local car industry in East Oxford gives an important addition to the city' s outlook. There а great deal of bi- cycle traffic both in Oxford and Cambridge.

12.Oxford.

The first written record of the town of Oxford dates back to the year 912. Oxford University, the oldest and most famous university in Britain, was founded in the middle of the 12th century and by 1300 there were already 1,500 students. At that time Oxford was a wealthy town, but by the middle of the 14th century it was poorer, because of a decline in trade and because of the terrible plague, which killed many people in England. The relations between the students and the townspeople were very unfriendly and there was often fighting in the streets.

Nowadays there are about 12,000 students in Oxford and over 1000 teachers. Outstanding scientists work in the numerous colleges of the University teaching and doing research work in physics, chemistry, mathematics, cybernetics, literature, modern and ancient languages, art and music, psychology.

Oxford University has a reputation of a privileged school. Many prominent political figures of the past and present times got their education at Oxford.

The Oxford English Dictionary is well-known to students of English everywhere. It contains approximately 5,000,000 entries, and there are thirteen volumes, including a supplement.

Oxford University Press, the publishing house which produces the Oxford English Dictionary has a special department called the Oxford Word and Language Service.

Cambridge University started during the 13th century and grew until today. Now there are more than thirty colleges.

On the banks of the Cam'4 willow trees drown their branches into the water. The colleges line the right bank. There are beautiful college gardens with green lawns and lines of tall trees. The oldest college is Peterhouse, which was founded in 1284, and the most recent is Robinson College, which was opened in 1977. The most famous is probably King' s College" because of its magnificent chapel, the largest and the most beautiful building in Cambridge and the most perfect example left of English fifteenth-century architecture. Its choir of boys and undergraduates is also very well known.

The University was only for men until 1871, when the first women' s college was opened. In the 1970s, most col- leges opened their doors to both men and women. Almost all colleges are now mixed.

Мапу great men studied at Cambridge, among them Desiderius Erasmus", the great Dutch scholar, Roger Bacon", the philosopher, Milton, the poet, Oliver Cromwell", the soldier, Newton, the scientist, and Kapitza, the famous Russian physicist.

The universities have over а hundred societies and clubs, enough for every interest one could imagine. Sport is part of students' life at Oxbridge. The most popular sports are rowing and punting.

13.Cambridge.

The Cambridge Folk Festival. Every year, in summer, one of the biggest festivals of folk music in arrive in Cambridge for the Festival. Many of the fans put up their tents to stay overnight. The Cambridge Folk Festival is always very well organized and there is always good order. However, some people who live nearby do not like Festival. They say that there is too much noise, that too much rubbish is left on the ground, and that many of the fans take drugs. On the other hand, local shopkeepers are glad, because for them the Festival means a big increase in the number of customers.

The second group of universities comprises various institutions of higher education, usually with technical study, that by 1900 had sprang up in new industrial towns and cities such as Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds. They got to be know as civic or ‘redbrick’ universities. Their buildings were made of local material, often brick, in contrast to the stone of older universities, hence the name, ‘redbrick’. These universities catered mostly for local people. At first they prepared students for London University degree, but later they were given the right to award their own degrees, and so became universities themselves. In the mid-20th century they started to accept students from all over the country.

The third group consists of new universities founded after the Second World War and later in the 1960s, which saw considerable expansion in new universities. These are purpose-built institutions located in the countryside but close to towns. Examples are East Anglia, Sussex and Warwick. From their beginning they attracted students from all over the country, and provided accommodation for most of their students in site (hence their name, ‘campus’ universities). They tend to emphasise relatively ‘new’ academic disciplines such as social science and make greater use than other universities of teaching in small groups, often known as ‘seminars’.

Among this group there are also universities often called ‘never civic’ universities. These were originally technical colleges set up by local authorities in the first half of this century. Their upgrading to university status took place in two waves. The first wave occurred in the mid-1960s, when ten of them were promoted in this way.

Another thirty became ‘polytechnics’, in the early 1970s, which meant that along with their former courses they were allowed to teach degree courses (the degrees being awarded by a national body). Polytechnics were originally expected to offer a broader-based, more practical and vocational education than the universities. In the early 1990s most of the polytechnics became universities. So there are now 80 universities and a further 19 colleges and institutions of higher education in the UK. The country has moved rapidly from a rather elitist system to one which is much more open, if not yet a mass system of higher education.

Higher education in England and Wales is highly selective; i.e. entrance to British universities is via a strict selection process is based on an interview. Applications for first degree courses are usually made through the Universities and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS), in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. After the interview a potential student is offered a place on the basis of GCE A-level exam results. If the student does not get the grades specified in the offer, a place can not be taken up. Some universities, such as Oxford and Cambridge, have an entrance exam before the interview stage.

This kind of selection procedure means that not everyone in Britain with A-level qualifications will be offered the chance of a university education. Critics argue that this creates an elitist system with the academic minority in society whilst supporters of the system argue that this enables Britain to get high-quality graduates who have specialized skills. The current system will be modified by the late 90s and into the 21st century, since secondary system is moving towards a broader-based education to replace the specialized ‘A’ level approach. The reasons for this lie in Britain’s need to have a highly skilled and educated workforce, not just an elite few, to meet the needs of the technological era.

The independence of Britain’s educational institutions is most noticeable in universities. They make their own choices of who to accept on their courses and normally do this on the basis of a student’s A-level results and an interview. Those with better exam grades are more likely to be accepted. Virtually all degree courses last three years, however there are some four-year courses and medical and veterinary courses last five or six years. The British University year is divided into three terms, roughly eight to ten weeks each. The terms are crowded with activity and the vacations between the terms – a month at Christmas, a month at Easter, and three or four months in summer – are mainly periods of intellectual digestion and private study.

The courses are also ‘full-time’ which really means full-time: the students are not supposed to take a lob during term time. Unless their parents are rich, they receive a state grant of money, which covers most of their expenses including the cost of accommodation. Grants and loans are intended to create opportunities for equality in education. A grants system was set up to support students through university. Grants are paid by the LEA on the basis of parental income. In the late 80s (the Conservative) government decided to stop to increase these grants, which were previously linked to inflation. Instead, students were able to borrow money in the form of a low-interest loan, which then had to be paid back after their course had finished. Critics argue that students from less affluent families had to think twice before entering the course, and that this worsened the trend which saw a 33% drop in working-class student numbers in the 1980s.

Students studying for the first degree are called undergraduates. At the end of the third year of study undergraduates sit for their examinations and take the bachelor’s degree. Those engaged in the study of arts such subjects as history, languages, economics or law take Bachelor of Arts (BA). Students studying pure or applied sciences such as medicine, dentistry, technology or agriculture get Bachelor of Science (BSc). When they have been awarded the degree, they are known as graduates. Most people get honours degrees, awarded in different classes. These are: Class I (known as ‘a first’), Class II, I (or ‘an upper second’), Class II, II (or ‘a lower second’), Class III (‘a third’). A student who is below one of these gets a pass degree (i.e. not an honours degree).

Students who obtain their Bachelor degree can apply to take a further degree course, usually involving a mixture of exam courses and research. There are two different types of post-graduate courses – the Master’s Degree (MA or MSc), which takes one or two years, and the higher degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), which takes two or three years. Funding for post-graduate courses is very limited, and even students with first class degrees may be unable to get a grant. Consequently many post-graduates have heavy bank loans or are working to pay their way to a higher degree.

The university system also provides a national network of extra-mural or ‘Continuing Education’ Departments which offer academic courses for adults who wish to study – often for the sheer pleasure of study – after they have left schools of higher education.

One development in education in which Britain can claim to lead the world is the Open University. It was founded in 1969 in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire and is so called because it is open to all – this university does not require any formal academic qualifications to study for a degree, and many people who do not have an opportunity to be ‘ordinary’ students enroll. The university is non-residential and courses are mainly taught by special written course books and by programmes on state radio and television. There are, however, short summer courses of about a week that the students have to attend and special part-time study centers where they can meet their tutors when they have problems.

As mentioned above, the British higher education system was added to in the 1970s, which saw the creation of colleges and institutions of higher education, often by merging existing colleges or by establishing new institutions. They now offer a wide range of degree, certificate and diploma courses in both science and art, and in some cases have specifically taken over the role of training teachers for the schools.

There are also a variety of other British higher institutions, which offer higher education. Some, like the Royal College of Arts, the Cornfield Institute of Technology and various Business Schools, have university status, while others, such as agricultural, drama and arts colleges like the Royal Academy of Dramatics Arts (RADA) and the Royal college of Music provide comparable courses. All these institutions usually have a strong vocational aspect in their programmes, which fills a specialized role in higher education.

14.Science

The word “science” comes from the Latin word “scientia”, which means “knowledge”. Scientists make observations and collect facts in field they work in. Then they arrange facts orderly and try to express the connection between the facts and try to work out theories. Then they have to prove the facts or theory correct and make sufficient and sound evidence. So scientific knowledge is always growing and improving.

Science has great influence on our life. It provides with base of modern technology, materials, sources of power and so on. Modern science and technology have changed our life in many different ways. During the present century our life changed greatly. Thanks to radio and television we can do a great number of jobs; it was radio and TV that made it possible to photograph the dark side of the moon and to talk with the first cosmonaut while he was orbiting the Earth. On of the wonders of our age is the “electronic brain”, or giant calculating machine, which can to some extent duplicate human senses. The desk computer is expected to function as your personal librarian, to carry out simple optimization computations, to control your budget or diet, play several hundred games, etc. further development of the computer is believed to lead to a situation in which most of the knowledge accepted by mankind will be stored in the computers and made accessible to anyone with the home computers. It is natural that the advent of minicomputers with extensive memories and possibilities will lead to a new higher level in information culture. Among other things, we shall be able to organize educational process in the country’s colleges and universities and also in the system of school education on a new basic. Knowledge is the most valuable wealth, and minicomputers will help us to make it accessible for everyone. Agricultural scientists develop better varieties of plants. The development of antibiotics and other drugs has helped to control many diseases. Studies in anatomy and physiology have let to amazing surgical operations and the inventions of lifesaving machines, that can do the work of such organs as heart, lungs and so on. Nuclear fission when a tremendous amount if energy is setting free is very important discovery.

Science improved the living standards, communications, promoted contact between people and government, knowledge and culture, made it possible to discover and develop new sources of energy, made it possible to prolong man’s life.

But science also has some disadvantages. It produces mass culture: painting, music, literature. Some scientific inventions increase the ecological problems, provide with new diseases like AIDS, increased the danger of violent death.

The greatest scientists were very persistent and were sure in their success. Even without any serious education they made great inventions. Even during times of disappointing experiments and unacknowledgement by other scientists, they didn’t give up and went on working out theories. Also they were always ready to begin everything from the very beginning. They worked a lot, and this work wasn’t for money.

The aim, the main object of the greatest scientists of all times was always to find out the troth and no personal prejudices can be allowed. So the science grows and prospers and is the engine of progress.

The problem of learning languages very important today. Foreign languages are socially demanded especially at the present time when the progress in science and technology has led to an explosion of knowledge and has contributed to an overflow of information. The total knowledge of mankind is known to double every seven years. Foreign languages are needed as the main and the most efficient means of information exchange of the people of our planet.

Today English is the language of the world. Over 300 million people speak it as mother tongue. The native speakers of English live in Great Britain, the United States of America, Australia and New Zealand. English is one of the official languages in the Irish Republic, Canada, the South African Republic. As the second language it is used in the former British and US colonies.

It is not only the national or the official language of some thirty states which represents different cultures, but it is also the major international language for communication in such areas as science, technology, business and mass entertainment. English is one of the official languages of the United Nations Organization and other political organizations. It is the language of literature, education, modern music, international tourism.

Russia is integrating into the world community and the problem of learning English for the purpose of communication is especially urgent today.

So far there is no universal or ideal method of learning languages. Everybody has his own way. Sometimes it is boring to study grammar or to learn new words. But it is well known that reading books in the original, listening to BBC news and English speaking singers, visiting an English speaking country, communicating with the English speaking people will help a lot.

When learning a foreign language you learn the culture and history of the native speakers.

nreferat.ru

Реферат - Education in Great Britain

1.Education.

The British education system has much in commonwith that in Europe,

that:

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Compulsory education is freecharge, though parents may choose a private school and spend their money oneducation their children. About93% of pupils receive free education from public funds, while the others attendindependent schools financed by fees paid by parents.

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There is, however, quite a lot that distinguisheseducation in Britain from the way it works in other countries. The most importantdistinguishing features are the lack of uniformity and comparatively littlecentral control. There are three separate government departments managingeducation: the Departments for Education and Employment is responsible forEngland and Wales alone; Scotland and Northern Ireland retain control over theeducation within their respective countries. None of these bodies exercisesmuch control over the details does not prescribe a detailed program oflearning, books and materials to be used, nor does it dictate the exact hoursof the school day, the exact days of holidays, school’s finance management andsuch lick. As many details possible are left to the discretion of theindividual institution.

          Manydistinctive characteristics of British education can be ascribed at leastpartly, to public school tradition. The present-day level of “grass-root”independence as well as different approach to education has been greatlyinfluenced by the philosophy that a school is its own community. The 19th centurypublic schools educated the sons of the upper and upper-middle classes and themain aim of schooling was to prepare young men to take up positions in thehigher ranks of the army, the Church, to fill top-jobs in business, the legalprofession, the civil serves and politics. To meet this aim the emphasis wasmade on “character-building” and the development of “team spirit” rather thanon academic achievement.

    Suchschools were (and still often are) mainly boarding establishments, so they hada deep and lasting influence on their pupils, consequently, public-schoolleaves for formed a closed group entry into which was difficult, the rulingelite the core of the Establishment.

    The 20thcentury brought education and its possibilities for social  advanced within everybody’s reach, and new,state schools naturally tended to copy the features of the public schools. Sotoday, in typically British fashion, learning for its own sake, rather than forany practical purpose is still been given a high value. As distinct from mostother countries, a relatively stronger emphasis is on the quality of personthat education produces rather than helping people to develop useful knowledgeand skills. In other words, the general style of teaching is to developunderstanding rather than acquiring factual knowledge and learning to applythis knowledge to specific tasks.

2.Public Schools – For Whom?

          About five per cent of children are educatedprivately in what is rather confusingly called public schools. These are theschools for the privileged. There are about 500 public schools in England andWales most of them single-sex. About half of them are for girls.

          Theschools, such as Eton, Harrow, Rugby and Winchester, are famous for theirability to lay the foundation of a successful future by giving their pupilsself- confidence, the right accent, a good academic background and, perhapsmost important of all, the right friends and contacts. People who went to oneof the public schools never call themselves school-leaves. They talk about “theold school tie” and “the old boy network”. They are just old boys or old girls.The fees are high and only very rich families can afford to pay so much. Publicschools educate the ruling class of England. One such school is Gordonstoun,which the Prince of Wales, the elder son of the Queen, left in 1968. HarrowSchool is famous as the place where Winston Churchill was educated, as well assix other Prime Ministers of England, the poet Lord Byron, the playwrightRichard Sheridan and many other prominent people.

         Public schools are free from state control. They are independent. Mostof them are boarding schools. The education is of a high quality; thediscipline is very strict. The system of education is the same: the most ablego ahead.

         These schools accept pupils from preparatory schools at about 11 or 13years of age usually on the basis of an examination, known as Common Entrance.There are three sittings of Common Entrance every year in February, June andNovember. Scholarships are rarely awarded on the results of Common Entrance.The fundamental requirements are very high. At 18 most public school-leaves,gain entry to universities.

3.Schooling.

         Great Britain does not have a written constitution, so there are noconstitutional provisions for education. The system of education is determinedby the National Education Acts.

         Schools in England are supported from public funds paid to the localeducation authorities. These local education authorities are responsible fororganizing the schools in their areas.

         Let’s outline the basic features of public education in Britain.Firstly, there are wide variations between one part of the country and another.For most educational purposes England and Wales are treated as one unit, thoughthe system in Wales is a little different from that of England. Scotland andNorthern Ireland have their own education systems.

         Secondly, education in Britain mirrors the country’s social system: itis class-divided and selective. The first division is between those who pay andthose who do not pay. The majority of schools in Britain are supported bypublic funds and the education provided is free. They are maintained schools,but there are also a considerable number of public schools. Parents have to payfees to send their children to these schools. The fees are high. As matter offact, only very rich families can send their children to public schools. Insome parts of Britain they still keep the old system of grammar schools, whichare selective. But most secondary schools in Britain, which are calledcomprehensive schools, are not selective – you don’t have to pass an exam to gothere.

         Another important feature of schooling in Britain is the variety ofopportunities offered to schoolchildren. The English school syllabus is dividedinto Arts and Sciences, which determine the division of the secondary schoolpupils into study groups: a Science pupil will study Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics,Economics, Technical Drawing, Biology, geography; an Art pupil will do EnglishLanguage and Literature, History, foreign languages, Music, Art, Drama. Besidesthese subjects they must do some general education subjects like PhysicalEducation, Home Economics for girls, and Technical subjects for boys, GeneralScience. Computers play an important part in education. The system of optionsexists in all kinds of secondary schools.

          TheNational Curriculum, which was introduced in 1988, sets out detail the subjectsthat children should study and the levels of achievement they should reach bythe ages of 7, 11, 14, and 16, when they are tested. Until that yearheadmasters and headmistresses of schools were given a great deal of freedom indeciding what subjects to teach and how to do it in their schools so that therewas really no central, control at all over individual schools. The NationalCurriculum does not apply in Scotland, where each school decides what subjectsit will teach.

          Afterthe age of 16 a growing number of school students are staying on at school,some until 18 or 19, the age of entry into higher education in universities,Polytechnics or colleges. Schools in Britain provide careers guidance. Aspecially trained person called careers advisor or careers officer helps schoolstudents to decide what job they want to do and how they can achieve it.

         British university courses are rather short, generally lasting for 3years. The cost of education depends on the college or university and specialwhich one chooses.

4.Education in Britain.

class

school

age

nursery school playgroup or kindergarten

3

4

reception class

year 1

infant school

5

6

year 2

year 3

year 4

year 5

year 6

primary school

junior school

7

8

9

10

11

year 7

year 8

year 9

year 10

year 11

secondary school

12

13

14

15

16

year 12

year 13

sixth form college

17

18

first year (fresher)

second year

third/final year

University or Polytechnic

19

20

21

postgraduate

University

23

5.Pre-primary and Primary Education.

          In some of England there are nursery schools forchildren under 5 years of age. Some children between two and five receiveeducation in nursery classes or in infants’ classes in primary schools. Manychildren attend informal pre-school playgroups organized by parents in privatehomes. Nursery schools are staffed with teachers and students in training.There are all kinds of toys to keep the children busy from 9 o’clock in themorning till 4 o’clock in the afternoon while their parents are at work. Herethe babies play, lunch and sleep. They can run about and play in safety withsomeone keeping an eye on them.

          Forday nurseries, which remain open all the year round, the parents pay accordingto their income. The local education authority’s nurseries are free. But onlyabout three children in 100 can go to them: there aren’t enough places and thewaiting lists are rather long.

          Mostchildren start school at five in primary school. A primary school may bedivided into two parts-infants and juniors. At infants school reading, writingand arithmetic are taught for about 20 minutes a day during the first year,gradually increasing to about 2 hours in their last year. There is usually nowritten timetable. Much time is spent in modeling from clay or drawing, readingor singing.

          Bythe time children are ready for the junior school they will be able to read andwrite, do simple addition and subtraction of numbers.

          Atseven children go on from the infants’ school to the junior school. This marksthe transition from play to “real work”. The children have set periods ofarithmetic, reading and composition which are all Eleven Plus subjects.History, Geography, Nature Study, Art and Music, Physical Education, Swimmingare also on the timetable.

Pupils are streamed, according to their ability tolearn into, A, B, C and D streams. The least gifted are in the D stream.Formerly towards the end of their fourth year the pupils wrote their ElevenPlus Examination. The hated 11 + examination was a selective procedure on whichnot only the pupil’s future schooling but their future careers depended. Theabolition of selection at Eleven plus Examination brought to life comprehensiveschools where pupils can get secondary education.

6.Secondary Education.

          Themajority of state secondary school pupils in England and Wales attendcomprehensive schools. These largely take pupils without reference to abilityor aptitude and provide a wide range of secondary education for all or mostchildren in a district. Schools take those, who are the 11 to 18 age-range,middle schools (8 to 14), and schools with an age-range from 11 to 16. Mostother state-educated children in England attend grammar or secondary modern schools,to which they are allocated after selection procedures at the age of 11.

         Before 1965 a selective system of secondary education existed inEngland. Under that system a child of 11 had to take an exam, which consistedof intelligence tests covering linguistic, mathematical and general knowledgewhich was to be taken by children in the last year of primary schooling. Theobject was to select between academic and non-academic children. Those who didwell in the examination went to a grammar school, while those who failed wentto a secondary modern school and technical college. Grammar schools preparedchildren for national examinations such as the GCE at O level and A-level.These examinations qualified children for the better jobs, and for entry highereducation and the professions. The education in secondary modern schools wasbased on practical schooling, which would allow entry into a variety of skilledand unskilled jobs.

          Manypeople complained that it was wrong for a person’s future to be decided at a soyoung age. The children who went to “secondary moderns” were seen as“failures”. More over, it was noticed that the children who passed this examwere almost all from middle-class families. The Labor Party, returned to powerin 1965, abolished the 11+ and tried to introduce the non-selective educationsystem in the form of “comprehensive” schools, that would provide schooling forchildren of all ability levels and from all social backgrounds, ideally underone roof. The final choice between selective and non-selective schooling,though, was left to LEAS that controlled the provision of school education inthe country. Some authorities decided for comprehensive, while others retainedgrammar schools and secondary moderns.

          Inthe late 1980s the Conservative government introduced another major change.Schools cloud now decide whether to remain as LEA-maintained schools or to“opt-out” of the control of the LEA and put themselves directly under thecontrol of the government department. These “grant-maintained” schools werefinanced directly by central government. This did not mean, however, that therewas more central control: grant-maintained schools did not have to ask anybodyelse about how to spend their money.

          Arecent development in education administration in England and Wales in theSchool Standards and Framework Act passed in July 1998. The Act establishedthat from 1.09.1999 all state school education authorities with the ending ofthe separate category of grant maintained status.

         There are some grant-maintained or voluntary aided schools, called CityTechnology Colleges. In 1999 there were 15 City Technology Colleges in England.These are non-fee-paying independent secondary schools created by a partnershipof government and private sector sponsors. The promoters own or lease theschools, employ teachers and make substantial contributions to the costs ofbuilding and equipment. The colleges teach the NC, but with an emphasis onmathematics, technology and science.

          So,today three types of state schools mainly provide secondary education:secondary modern schools grammar schools and comprehensive schools. Thereshould also be mentioned another type of schools, called specialist schools.The specialist school programmer in England was launched in 1993. Specialistschools are state secondary schools specializing in technology, science andmathematics; modern foreign languages; sports; arts.

         State schools are absolutely free (including all textbooks and exercisebooks) and generally co-educational.

         Under the NC a greater emphasis at the secondary level is laid onscience and technology. Accordingly, ten subjects have to be studied: English,history, geography, mathematics, science, a modern foreign language,technology, music, art and physical education. For special attention there ofthese subjects (called “core subjects”): English, science, mathematics andseven other subjects are called “foundation or statuary subjects”. Besides, subjectsare grouped into departments and teachers work in teams and to plan work.

          Mostcommon departments are:

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          Thelatter brings together the practical subjects like cooing, woodwork, sewing,and metalwork with the new technology used in those fields. Students can designa T-shirt on computer using graphics software and make-up the T-shirt design.Students can also look at way to market their product, thus linking alldisciplines. This subject’s area exemplifies the process approach to learningintroduced by the NC.

          Itis worth mentioning here the growing importance of personal and SocialEducation. Since the 1970s there has been an emphasis on “pastoral” care,education in areas related to life skills such as health (this includes lookingat drug, discussing physical changes related to poverty, sex education andrelationship). There are usually one or two lessons a week, from primary schoolthrough to sixth form and they are an essential part of the school’s aim toprepare students to life in society.

         Education in Britain is not solely concentrated on academic study. Greatvalue is placed on visits and activities like organizing the school club orfield trips, which are educational in a more general sense. The organization ofthese activities by teachers is very much taken for granted in the Britishschool system. Some teachers give up their free time, evenings and weekends todo this “unpaid” work. At Christmas teachers organized concerts, parties andgeneral festivities. It is also considered a good thing to be “seen” to bedoing this extra work since it is fairly essential for securing promotion inthe school hierarchy.

         Classes of pupils are called “forms” (though it has recently becomecommon to refer to “years”) and are numbered from one to beginning with firstform. Nearly all schools work a five-day week and are closed on Saturdays. Theday starts at nine o’clock and finishes between three and four. The lunch breakusually lasts about an hour-and-a-quarter. Nearly two-thirds of pupils havelunch provided by the school. Parents pay for this except for the 15 per centwho are rated poor enough and have it for free. Other children either go homefor lunch or take sandwiches.

         Schools usually divide their year into tree “terms” starting at thebeginning of September:

Autumn

term

Christmas

Holiday

(about 2weeks)

Spring

term

Easter

Holiday

(about 2 weeks)

Summer

term

Summer

Holiday

(about 6 weeks)

         Passage from one year to the next one is automatic. At the age of 14pupils are tested in English, mathematics and science, as well as in statutorysubjects. At that same age in the third or forth pupils begin to choose theirexam subjects and work for two years to prepare for their qualifications. Theexams are usually taken in fifth form at the age of 16, which is aschool-leaving age. The actual written exams are set by outside examiners, butthey must be approved by the government and comply with national guidelines.There are several examination boards in Britain and each school decided thatboard’s exam its pupils take. Most exams last for two hours, marks are givenfor each exams separately and are graded from A to G (grades A, B, C areconsidered to be “good” marks).

          16are an important age for school-leaves because they have to make key decisionsas to their future lives and careers. There is a number of choices for them.

7.Life at School.

          Theschool year is divided into terms, three months each, named after seasons:autumn term, winter term and spring term.

          Theautumn term starts on the first Tuesday morning in September. In July schoolsbreak up for eight weeks.

          Lifeat school is more or less similar everywhere. Each group of 30 pupils is theresponsibility of a form tutor. Each school day is divided into periods of40-50 minutes, time for various lessons with 10-20 minutes breaks between them.It might be interesting for you to see the “Bell Times” at Lawnswood school inLeads.

          Bell Times

8.40 a.m. – School begins

8.45 a.m. – Registration

8.50 a.m. – Assembly bell

9.00 a.m. – Pupils move to lessons

9.05 a.m. – Lesson 1

9.45 a.m. — Lesson 2

10.25 a.m. – Lesson 3

11.25 a.m. – Lesson 3

11.05 a.m. – Break

11.25 a.m. – Pupils move to lessons

11.30 a.m. – Lesson 4

12.10 p.m. – Lesson 5

12.50 p.m. – Lunch time

1.40 p.m. – Afternoon school begins

1.45 p.m. – Registration

1.50 p.m. – Lesson 6

2.30 p. m. Lesson 7

3.10 p.m. – End of normal lessons

3.10 p.m. – Start of additional lessons, clubs, societies, teampractice, detentions.

          Onimportant occasions such as end of term or nationalholiday,called in English schools speech-dayspupils are gathered in the assembly or hall.

          Mostof the pupil’s time is spent in a classroom equipped with desks and ablackboard nowadays often called chalkboard because normally it is brown orgreen. The desks are arranged in rows, the space between the rows is called anaisle.

          Inaddition to classrooms there are laboratories for Physics, Chemistry andBiology. Technical rooms are for Woodwork, Metalwork, Technical Drawing. Thereare rooms for computer studies. Many young people use them for school exercise.They are now able to write their own games as well. The Physical Educationlessons are conducted at the gymnasium, games-hall or at the playground infront of the school building. There are also language laboratories and housecraft rooms. Every school has a library and a school canteen. In student commonroom boys and girls can relax during the breaks and lunchtime the Staff commonroom is for teachers. In case of illness a schoolchild may go to the sick room.

          Pupilsat many secondary schools Britain have to wear a school uniform. This usuallymeans a white blouse for girls (perhaps with a tie), with a dark-colored skirtand pullover. Boys wear a shirt and tie, dark trousers and dark-coloredpullovers. Pupils also wear blazers-a kind of jacket-with the school badge onthe pocket. They often have to wear some kind of hat on the way to and fromschool-caps for boys and berets or some other kind of hat for girls shoes areusually black or brown. And no high heels!

          Youngpeople in Britain often don’t like their school uniform, especially the hatsand shoes. Sometimes they do not wear the right clothes. Schools will oftengive them a warning the first time that this happens but then will punish themif they continue not to wear the correct uniform. Senior student don’t have towear their school uniform.

          Itsounds logical to say that the school’s function is to train a pupil’s mind andhis character should be formed at home. Teachers would be pleased if theproblem could be solved so easily. But children don’t leave their characters athome when their minds go to school. Many of them have personality problems ofone kind or another.

          Thepupils who violate various school regulations may be punished in the followingways: for lateness, truancy they may be reported to the Headmaster or named inschool assembly. They may be detained in school after ordinary hours.

          Corporalpunishment has recently been banned in state schools. But in most publicschools it is still allowed. Caning is the usual punishment for seriousmisbehavior in class, damage and vandalism. Many teachers remark thatstandards of discipline have fallen since corporal punishment was banned by thegovernment.           

          You may want to know whether there are any rewards andprizes for the best pupils. Of course, there are. Each school has its system ofrewards: medals and prizes.

8.Social,Cultural and Sporting Life

Each school or sixth-form college has its School or College Council. Ithelps to plan the policy for the whole school. It organizes the social andcultural life at the school.

School Councils in many schools and colleges are chaired by a studentand have a majority of student members. They rundiscos and parties, stage drama productions and decoratethe student common room. Music-making is part of school life. Some studentshelp in local hospitals, homes for the handicapped and elderly people.

There are many clubs and societies. Very popular, especially with seniorpupils, is аschool debating society.

Most clubs meet regularly: daily, weekly or monthly, at lunchtime or after school. Extracurricular activities include various outings,visits to places of interest and dances. School choirs and orchestras giveregular concerts. Sports are very popular too: running, jogging, swimming,self-defence, football, soccer, badminton, aerobics, rugby, etc.

There are many national voluntary youth organizations in Britain. Youhave probably read about the Scout and Girl Guides  Associations. There are some clubs run by thechurches. There three pre-service organizations (the Sea Cadet Corps, Army,Cadet Force and Air Training Corps) are not very large. Their activities arerelated to the work of the armed forces.

But the largest youth organizations, as you probably know, are theassociations of the Boy Scouts and the Girl Guides. There are about 1,300,000boys and girls in them. The movement of Boy Scouts was founded by GeneralBaden-Powell in 1908 and began to spring up in almost every town and village ofthe British Isles. Its aim is to help I аScout (аboyfrom 8 to 18) to develop into аgood man and аuseful citizen. He must beable to handle sails, to use аcompass, to lay and light аfire out of doors, he must know first aid and develop his interest inmusic, literature, drama, arts and films. A Scout is аfriend to animals, he is 'clean in thought, word and deed’. He mustobey the Scout Law.

The Girl Guides Association was founded by Lord Baden-Powell in 1910. Itis divided into three sections: Brownies (from 7,5 tо11), Guides (age 11 — 16) and Rangers (age 16 — 21). The programmer of trainingis planned to develop intelligence and practical skills inculding cookery,needle-work and childcare. The training and the Law are much the same as those of the Scouts. Like аScout аGirl Guide must be аfriend to animals. She mustbe ‘pure in thought, word and deed’. She must be loyal to God and the Queen.

There are several youth organizations associated with political parties.The Youth Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (YCND) unites thousands of youngpeople of Great Britain. It co-operates with the NationalUnion of Students and many other youth organizations. It organizes mass ralliesand meetings, demonstrations, marches of protest, festivals.

The academic year in Britain' s universities, Polytechnics, Colleges ofEducation is divided into three terms, which usually run from the beginning ofOctober to the middle of December, from the middle of January to the end ofMarch, and from the middle of April to the end of June or the beginning ofJuly.

There are about one hundred universities in Britain. The oldest andbest-known universities are located in Oxford, Cambridge, London, Leeds,Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Southampton, Cardiff, Bristol, Birmingham.

Good А-level results in at least two subjects arenecessary to get аplace at аuniversity. However, good exam passes alone are not enough. Universities choosetheir students after interviews. For all British citizens аplace at аuniversity brings with it аgrant from their local education authority.

English universities greatly differ from each other. They differ in dateof foundation, size, history, tradition, general organization, methods ofinstruction, way of student life.

After three years of study аuniversity graduatewill leave with the Degree of Bachelor of Arts, Science, Engineering, Medicine,etc. Later he may continue to take аMaster’s Degree and then аDoctor’s Degree. Researchis an important feature of university work.

The two intellectual eyes of Britain — Oxford and Cam- bridgeUniversities — date from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

The Scottish universities of St. Andrews, Glasgow, Аberdeen and Edinburgh date from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

 In the nineteenth and the earlypart of the twentieth centuries the so-called Redbrick universities werefounded. These include London, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield andBirmingham. During the late sixties and early seventies some 20 'new'universities were set up. Sometimes they are called 'concrete and glass'universities. Among them are the universities of Sussex, York, East Anglia andsome others.

During these years the Government set up thirty Polytechnics. ThePolytechnics, like the universities, offer first andhigher degrees. Some of them offer full-time and sandwich courses. Colleges ofEducation provide two-year courses in teacher education or sometimes threeyears if the graduate specializes in some particular subject.

Some of those who decide to leave school at the age of 16 may go tоаfurther education college where they canfollow аcourse in typing, engineering, town planning, cooking, or hairdressing,full-time or part-time. Further education colleges have strong ties withcommerce and industry.

There is an interesting form of studies which is called the OpenUniversity. It is intended for people who study in their own free time and whoattend" lectures by watching television and listening to the radio. Theykeep in touch by phone and letter with their tutors and attend summer schools.The Open University students have nоformalqualifications and would be unable to enter ordinary universities.

Some 80,000 overseas students study at British universities or furthereducation colleges or train in nursing, law, banking or in industry.

10.Higher education.

As has been mentioned above, thereis a considerable enthusiasm for post-school education in Britain. The aim ofthe government is to increase the number of students who enter into highereducation. The driving force for this has been mainly economic.  It is assumed that the more people who studyat degree level, the more likely the country is to succeed economically. Alarge proportion of young people – about a third in England and Wales andalmost half in Scotland – continue in education at a more A-level beyond the ageof 18. The higher education sector provides a variety of courses up to degreeand postgraduate degree level, and careers out research. It increasingly catersfor older students; over 50% of students in 1999 were aged 25 and over and manystudied part-time. Nearly every university offers access and foundation coursesbefore enrolment on a course of higher education of prospective students who donot have the standard entry qualifications.

Higher educationin Britain is traditionally associated with universities, though education ofUniversity standard is also given in other institutions such as colleges and institutes of highereducation, which have the power to award their own degrees.

The onlyexception to state universities is the small University of Buckingham whichconcentrates on law, and which draws most of its students of overseas.

All universitiesin England and Wales are state universities (this includes Oxford andCambridge).

Englishuniversities can be broadly classified into three types. First come the ancientuniversities of Oxford and Cambridge that date from the 12th centuryand that until 1828 were virtually the only English universities.

Oxford and Cambridge are the oldest and most prestigious universities inGreat Britain. They are often called collectively Oxbridge. Both universitiesare independent. Only the education elite go to Oxford or Cambridge. Most oftheir students are former public schools leavers.

The normal length of the degree course is three years, after which thestudents take the Degree of Bachelor of Arts (В.А.). Some courses, such as languages or medicine, bay be one or two yearslonger. The students may work for other degrees as well. The degrees areawarded at public degree ceremonies'. Oxford and Cambridge cling to theirtraditions, such as the use of Latin at degree ceremonies. Full academic dressis worn at examinations.

Oxford and Cambridge universities consist of аnumber of colleges. Each college is different, but in many ways theyare alike. Each

collegehas its name, its coat of arms. Each college is governed bya  Master. The larger ones have more than400 members, the smallest colleges have less than 30. Each college offersteaching in аwide range of subjects. Within, the collegeone will normally find аchapel, аdining hall, аlibrary, rooms forundergraduates, fellows and the Master, and also rooms for teaching purposes.

Oxford is one of the oldest universities in Europe. It is the secondlargest in Britain, after I.ondon. The town of Oxford is first mentioned in theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle in 911 А.D. and it was popular withthe early English kings (Richard Coeur de Lion' was probably here). Theuniversity's earliest charter" is dated tо1213.

There are now twenty-four colleges for men, five for women and anotherfive which have both men and women members, many from overseas studying forhigher degrees. Among the oldest colleges are University College, All Souls andChrist Church.

The local car industry in East Oxford gives an important addition to thecity' s outlook. There аgreat deal of bi- cycletraffic both in Oxford and Cambridge.

12.Oxford.

The first written record of thetown of Oxford dates back to the year 912. Oxford University, the oldest andmost famous university in Britain, was founded in the middle of the 12thcentury and by 1300 there were already 1,500 students. At that time Oxford wasa wealthy town, but by the middle of the 14th century it was poorer,because of a decline in trade and because of the terrible plague, which killedmany people in England. The relations between the students and the townspeoplewere very unfriendly and there was often fighting in the streets.

Nowadays there are about 12,000students in Oxford and over 1000 teachers. Outstanding scientists work in thenumerous colleges of the University teaching and doing research work inphysics, chemistry, mathematics, cybernetics, literature, modern and ancientlanguages, art and music, psychology.

Oxford University has a reputationof a privileged school. Many prominent political figures of the past andpresent times got their education at Oxford.

The Oxford English Dictionary iswell-known to students of English everywhere. It contains approximately5,000,000 entries, and there are thirteen volumes, including a supplement.

Oxford UniversityPress, the publishing house which produces the Oxford English Dictionary has aspecial department called the Oxford Word and Language Service.

Cambridge University started during the 13th century and grew untiltoday. Now there are more than thirty colleges.

Onthe banks of the Cam'4 willow trees drown their branches into the water. Thecolleges line the right bank. There are beautiful college gardens with greenlawns and lines of tall trees. The oldest college is Peterhouse, which wasfounded in 1284, and the most recent is Robinson College, which was opened in1977. The most famous is probably King' s College" because of itsmagnificent chapel, the largest and the most beautiful building in Cambridgeand the most perfect example left of English fifteenth-century architecture.Its choir of boys and undergraduates is also very well known.

TheUniversity was only for men until 1871, when the first women' s college wasopened. In the 1970s, most col- leges opened their doors to both men and women.Almost all colleges are now mixed.

Мапуgreat men studied at Cambridge, among them Desiderius Erasmus", the greatDutch scholar, Roger Bacon", the philosopher, Milton, the poet,Oliver Cromwell", the soldier, Newton, the scientist, and Kapitza, thefamous Russian physicist.

Theuniversities have over аhundred societies andclubs, enough for every interest one could imagine. Sport is part of students'life at Oxbridge. The most popular sports are rowing and punting.

13.Cambridge.

The Cambridge Folk Festival. Everyyear, in summer, one of the biggest festivals of folk music in arrive inCambridge for the Festival. Many of the fans put up their tents to stayovernight. The Cambridge Folk Festival is always very well organized and thereis always good order. However, some people who live nearby do not likeFestival. They say that there is too much noise, that too much rubbish is lefton the ground, and that many of the fans take drugs. On the other hand, localshopkeepers are glad, because for them the Festival means a big increase in thenumber of customers. 

The secondgroup of universities comprises various institutions of higher education,usually with technical study, that by 1900 had sprang up in new industrialtowns and cities such as Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds. They gotto be know as civic or ‘redbrick’ universities. Their buildings were made oflocal material, often brick, in contrast to the stone of older universities,hence the name, ‘redbrick’. These universities catered mostly for local people.At first they prepared students for London University degree, but later theywere given the right to award their own degrees, and so became universitiesthemselves. In the mid-20th century they started to accept studentsfrom all over the country.

The third groupconsists of new universities founded after the Second World War and later inthe 1960s, which saw considerable expansion in new universities. These arepurpose-built institutions located in the countryside but close to towns.Examples are East Anglia, Sussex and Warwick. From their beginning theyattracted students from all over the country, and provided accommodation formost of their students in site (hence their name, ‘campus’ universities). Theytend to emphasise relatively ‘new’ academic disciplines such as social scienceand make greater use than other universities of teaching in small groups, oftenknown as ‘seminars’.

Among thisgroup there are also universities often called ‘never civic’ universities.These were originally technical colleges set up by local authorities in thefirst half of this century. Their upgrading to university status took place intwo waves. The first wave occurred in the mid-1960s, when ten of them werepromoted in this way.

Another thirtybecame ‘polytechnics’, in the early 1970s, which meant that along with theirformer courses they were allowed to teach degree courses (the degrees beingawarded by a national body). Polytechnics were originally expected to offer abroader-based, more practical and vocational education than the universities.In the early 1990s most of the polytechnics became universities. So there arenow 80 universities and a further 19 colleges and institutions of highereducation in the UK. The country has moved rapidly from a rather elitist systemto one which is much more open, if not yet a mass system of higher education.

Highereducation in England and Wales is highly selective; i.e. entrance to Britishuniversities is via a strict selection process is based on an interview.Applications for first degree courses are usually made through the Universitiesand Colleges Admission Service (UCAS), in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Afterthe interview a potential student is offered a place on the basis of GCEA-level exam results. If the student does not get the grades specified in theoffer, a place can not be taken up. Some universities, such as Oxford andCambridge, have an entrance exam before the interview stage.

          Thiskind of selection procedure means that not everyone in Britain with A-level qualificationswill be offered the chance of a university education. Critics argue that thiscreates an elitist system with the academic minority in society whilstsupporters of the system argue that this enables Britain to get high-qualitygraduates who have specialized skills. The current system will be modified bythe late 90s and into the 21st century, since secondary system ismoving towards a broader-based education to replace the specialized ‘A’ levelapproach. The reasons for this lie in Britain’s need to have a highly skilledand educated workforce, not just an elite few, to meet the needs of thetechnological era.

Theindependence of Britain’s educational institutions is most noticeable inuniversities. They make their own choices of who to accept on their courses andnormally do this on the basis of a student’s A-level results and an interview.Those with better exam grades are more likely to be accepted. Virtually alldegree courses last three years, however there are some four-year courses and medicaland veterinary courses last five or six years. The British University year isdivided into three terms, roughly eight to ten weeks each. The terms arecrowded with activity and the vacations between the terms – a month atChristmas, a month at Easter, and three or four months in summer – are mainlyperiods of intellectual digestion and private study.

Thecourses are also ‘full-time’ which really means full-time: the students are notsupposed to take a lob during term time. Unless their parents are rich, theyreceive a state grant of money, which covers most of their expenses includingthe cost of accommodation. Grants and loans are intended to createopportunities for equality in education. A grants system was set up to supportstudents through university. Grants are paid by the LEA on the basis ofparental income. In the late 80s (the Conservative) government decided to stopto increase these grants, which were previously linked to inflation. Instead,students were able to borrow money in the form of a low-interest loan, whichthen had to be paid back after their course had finished. Critics argue thatstudents from less affluent families had to think twice before entering thecourse, and that this worsened the trend which saw a 33% drop in working-classstudent numbers in the 1980s.

Students studying for thefirst degree are called undergraduates. At the end of the third year of studyundergraduates sit for their examinations and take the bachelor’s degree. Thoseengaged in the study of arts such subjects as history, languages, economics orlaw take Bachelor of Arts (BA). Students studying pure or applied sciences suchas medicine, dentistry, technology or agriculture get Bachelor of Science(BSc). When they have been awarded the degree, they are known as graduates.Most people get honoursdegrees, awarded indifferent classes. These are: Class I (known as ‘a first’), Class II, I (or ‘anupper second’), Class II, II (or ‘a lower second’), Class III (‘a third’). Astudent who is below one of these gets a pass degree (i.e. not an honoursdegree).

Students whoobtain their Bachelor degree can apply to take a further degree course, usuallyinvolving a mixture of exam courses and research. There are two different typesof post-graduate courses – the Master’s Degree (MA or MSc), which takes one ortwo years, and the higher degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), which takes twoor three years. Funding for post-graduate courses is very limited, and evenstudents with first class degrees may be unable to get a grant. Consequentlymany post-graduates have heavy bank loans or are working to pay their way to ahigher degree.

The university system alsoprovides a national network of extra-mural or ‘Continuing Education’Departments which offer academic courses for adults who wish to study – oftenfor the sheer pleasure of study – after they have left schools of highereducation.

One developmentin education in which Britain can claim to lead the world is the OpenUniversity. It was founded in 1969 in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire and is socalled because it is open to all – this university does not require any formalacademic qualifications to study for a degree, and many people who do not havean opportunity to be ‘ordinary’ students enroll. The university is non-residentialand courses are mainly taught by special written course books and by programmeson state radio and television. There are, however, short summer coursesof about a week that the students have to attend and special part-time studycenters where they can meet their tutors when they have problems.

As mentionedabove, the British higher education system was added to in the 1970s, which sawthe creation of colleges and institutions of higher education, often by mergingexisting colleges or by establishing new institutions. They now offer a widerange of degree, certificate and diploma courses in both science and art, andin some cases have specifically taken over the role of training teachers forthe schools.

There are alsoa variety of other British higher institutions, which offer higher education.Some, like the Royal College of Arts, the Cornfield Institute of Technology andvarious Business Schools, have university status, while others, such asagricultural, drama and arts colleges like the Royal Academy of Dramatics Arts(RADA) and the Royal college of Music provide comparable courses. All theseinstitutions usually have a strong vocational aspect in their programmes, whichfills a specialized role in higher education.

14.Science

          The word “science” comes from the Latinword “scientia”, which means “knowledge”.Scientists make observations and collect facts in field they work in. Then theyarrange facts orderlyandtry to express the connectionbetween the facts and try to work out theories. Then they have to prove thefacts or theory correct and make sufficient and sound evidence. So scientificknowledge is always growing and improving.

          Science has great influence on ourlife. It provides with base of modern technology, materials, sources of powerand so on. Modern science and technology have changed our life in manydifferent ways. During the present century our life changed greatly. Thanks toradio and television we can do a great number of jobs; it was radio and TV thatmade it possible to photograph the dark side of the moon and to talk with thefirst cosmonaut while he was orbiting the Earth. On of the wonders of our ageis the “electronic brain”, or giant calculating machine, which can to someextent duplicate human senses. The desk computer is expected to function asyour personal librarian, to carry out simple optimization computations, tocontrol your budget or diet, play several hundred games, etc. furtherdevelopment of the computer is believed to lead to a situation in which most ofthe knowledge accepted by mankind will be stored in the computers and madeaccessible to anyone with the home computers. It is natural that the advent ofminicomputers with extensive memories and possibilities will lead to a newhigher level in information culture. Among other things, we shall be able toorganize educational process in the country’s colleges and universities andalso in the system of school education on a new basic. Knowledge is the mostvaluable wealth, and minicomputers will help us to make it accessible foreveryone. Agricultural scientists develop better varieties of plants. Thedevelopment of antibiotics and other drugs has helped to control many diseases.Studies in anatomy and physiology have let to amazing surgical operations andthe inventions of lifesaving machines, that can do the work of such organs asheart, lungs and so on. Nuclear fission when a tremendous amount if energy issetting free is very important discovery.

          Science improved the living standards,communications, promoted contact between people and government, knowledge andculture, made it possible to discover and develop new sources of energy, madeit possible to prolong man’s life.

          But science also has somedisadvantages. It produces mass culture: painting, music, literature. Somescientific inventions increase the ecological problems, provide with newdiseases like AIDS, increased the danger of violent death.

          The greatest scientists were verypersistent and were sure in their success. Even without any serious educationthey made great inventions. Even during times of disappointing experiments andunacknowledgement by other scientists, they didn’t give up and went on workingout theories. Also they were always ready to begin everything from the very beginning. They worked a lot,and this work wasn’t for money.

          The aim, the main object of thegreatest scientists of all times was always to find out the troth and nopersonal prejudices can be allowed. So the science grows and prospers and isthe engine of progress.

          The problem of learning languages veryimportant today. Foreign languages are socially demanded especially at thepresent time when the progress in science and technology has led to anexplosion of knowledge and has contributed to an overflow of information. Thetotal knowledge of mankind is known to double every seven years. Foreignlanguages are needed as the main and the most efficient means of informationexchange of the people of our planet.

          Today English is the language of theworld. Over 300 million people speak it as mother tongue. The native speakersof English live in Great Britain, the United States of America, Australia andNew Zealand.  English is one of theofficial languages in the Irish Republic, Canada, the South African Republic.As the second language it is used in the former British and  US colonies.

          It is not only the national or theofficial language of some thirty states which represents different cultures,but it is also the major international language for communication in such areasas science, technology, business and mass entertainment. English is one of theofficial languages of the United Nations Organization and other politicalorganizations. It is the language of literature, education, modern music,international tourism.

          Russia is integrating into the worldcommunity and the problem of learning English for the purpose of communicationis especially urgent today.

          So far there is no universal or idealmethod of learning languages. Everybody has his own way. Sometimes it is boringto study grammar or to learn new words. But it is well known that reading booksin the original, listening to BBC news and English speaking singers, visitingan English speaking country, communicating with the English speaking peoplewill help a lot.

           When learning a foreign language you learn theculture and history of the native speakers.      

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Реферат: Education in Britain

MOSCOW   STATE   TEACHER`S  TRAINING  UNIVERSITY

Education in the United Kingdom

            Written  by  Isaeva Tatiana

                             group 301

Checked by Makhmuryan K.

MOSCOW     2001

PLAN

1.  Introduction

2.   Primary and secondary education

3.  The story of British schools

4.  Arguments aboout the purpose of education

5.  Changing political control

6.  The public system of education (a table)

7.  The private sector

8.  Further and higher education

9.  Conclusion (Education under Labour)

10.Questions

Introduction

ducation in England is not as perfect as we, foreigners think. There are plenty of stereotypes, which make us think, that British education is only Oxford and Cambrige, but there are also many educational problems.During the last fifteen years or so, there have been unprecedented changes in the system of education in England and Wales. I’ll try to explain the changes and the reasons for them. In my work I will also give a description of the system of education, which differs from that in Russia very much.

Primary and secondary education

chooling is compulsory for 12 years, for all children aged five to 16. There are two voluntary years of schooling thereafter. Children may attend either state-funded or fee-paying independent schools. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the primary cycle lasts from five to 11. Generally speaking, children enter infant school, moving on to junior school (often in the same building) at the age of seven, and then on to secondary school at the age of 11. Roughly 90 per cent of children receive their secondary education at 'comprehensive' schools. For those who wish to stay on, secondary school can include the two final years of secondary education, sometimes known in Britain (for historical reasons) as 'the sixth form'. In many parts of the country, these two years are spent at a tertiary or sixth-form college, which provides academic and vocational courses.

Two public academic examinations are set, one on completion of the compulsory cycle of education at the age of 16, and one on completion of the two voluntary years. At 16 pupils take the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), introduced in 1989 to replace two previous examinations, one academic and the other indicating completion of secondary education. It was introduced to provide one examination whereby the whole range of ability could be judged, rather than having two classes of achievers; and also to assess children on classwork and homework as well as in the examination room, as a more reliable form of assessment. During the two voluntary years of schooling, pupils specialise in two or three subjects and take the General Certificate of Education (always known simply as 'GCE') Advanced Level, or 'A level' examination, usually with a view to entry to a university or other college of higher education. New examinations. Advanced Supplementary (AS) levels, were introduced in 1989, to provide a wider range of subjects to study, a recognition that English education has traditionally been overly narrow. The debate about the need for a wider secondary level curriculum continues, and Labour is likely to introduce more changes at this level. These examinations are not set by the government, but by independent examination boards, most of which are associated with a particular university or group of universities. Labour may replace these boards with one national board of examination.

            A new qualification was introduced in 1992 for pupils who are skills, rather than academically, orientated, the General National Vocational Qualification, known as GNVQ. This examination is taken at three distinct levels: the Foundation which has equivalent standing to low-grade passes in four subjects of GCSE; the Intermediate GNVQ which is equivalent to high-grade passes in four subjects of GCSE; and the Advanced GNVQ, equivalent to two passes at A level and acceptable for university entrance.

            The academic year begins in late summer, usually in September, and is divided into three terms, with holidays for Christmas, Easter and for the month of August, although the exact dates vary slightly from area to area. In addition each term there is normally a mid-term one-week holiday, known as 'half-term'.

The story of British schools

or largely historical reasons, the schools system is complicated, inconsistent and highly varied. Most of the oldest schools, of which the most famous are Eton, Harrow, Winchester and Westminster, are today independent, fee-paying, public schools for boys. Most of these were established to create a body of literate men to fulfil the administrative, political, legal and religious requirements of the late Middle Ages. From the sixteenth century onwards, many 'grammar' schools were established, often with large grants of money from wealthy men, in order to provide a local educational facility.

From the 1870s local authorities were required to establish elementary schools, paid for by the local community, and to compel attendance by all boys and girls up to the age of 1 3. By 1900 almost total attendance had been achieved. Each authority, with its locally elected councillors, was responsible for the curriculum. Although a general consensus developed concerning the major part of the school curriculum, a strong feeling of local control continued and interference by central government was resented. A number of secondary schools were also established by local authorities, modelled on the public schools.

The 1944 Education Act introduced free compulsory secondary education. Almost all children attended one of two kinds of secondary school. The decision was made on the results obtained in the '11 plus' examination, taken in the last year of primary school. Eighty per cent of pupils went to 'secondary modern' schools where they were expected to obtain sufficient education for manual, skilled and clerical employment, but where academic expectations were modest. The remaining 20 per cent went to grammar schools. Some of these were old foundations which now received a direct grant from central government, but the majority were funded through the local authority. Grammar school pupils were expected to go on to university or some other form of higher education. A large number of the grammar or 'high' schools were single sex. In addition there were, and continue to be, a number of voluntary state-supported primary and secondary schools, most of them under the management of the Church of England or the Roman Catholic Church, which usually own the school buildings.

            By the 1960s there was increasing criticism of this streaming of ability, particularly by the political Left. It was recognised that many children performed inconsistently, and that those who failed the 11 plus examination were denied the chance to do better later. Early selection also reinforced the divisions of social class, and was wasteful of human potential. A government report in 1968 produced evidence that an expectation of failure became increasingly fulfilled, with secondary modern pupils aged 14 doing significantly worse than they had at the age of eight. Labour's solution was to introduce a new type of school, the comprehensive, a combination of grammar and secondary modern under one roof, so that all the children could be continually assessed and given appropriate teaching. Between 1965 and 1980 almost all the old grammar and secondary modern schools were replaced, mainly by coeducational comprehensives. The measure caused much argument for two principal reasons. Many local authorities, particularly Conservative-controlled ones, did not wish to lose the excellence of their grammar schools, and many resented Labour's interference in education, which was still considered a local responsibility. However, despite the pressure to change school structures, each school, in consultation with the local authority, remained in control of its curriculum. In practice the result of the reform was very mixed:

the best comprehensives aimed at grammar school academic standards, while the worst sank to secondary modern ones.

            One unforeseen but damaging result was the refusal of many grammar schools to join the comprehensive experiment. Of the 174 direct-grant grammar schools, 119 decided to leave the state system rather than become comprehensive, and duly became independent fee-paying establishments. This had two effects. Grammar schools had provided an opportunity for children from all social backgrounds to excel academically at the same level as those attending fee-paying independent public schools. The loss of these schools had a demoralising effect on the comprehensive experiment and damaged its chances of success, but led to a revival of independent schools at a time when they seemed to be slowly shrinking. The introduction of comprehensive schools thus unintentionally reinforced an educational elite which only the children of wealthier parents could hope to join.

Comprehensive schools became the standard form of secondary education (other than in one or two isolated areas, where grammar schools and secondary moderns survived). However, except among the best comprehensives they lost for a while the excellence of the old grammar schools.

            Alongside the introduction of comprehensives there was a move away from traditional teaching and discipline towards what was called 'progressive' education.-This entailed a change from more formal teaching and factual learning tc greater pupil participation and discussion, with greater emphasis on comprehension and less on the acquisition of knowledge. Not everyone approved, particularly on the political Right. There was increasing criticism of the lack of discipline and of formal learning, and a demand to return tc old-fashioned methods.

            From the 1960s there was also greater emphasis on education and training than ever before, with many colleges of further education established to provide technical or vocational training. However, British education remained too academic for the less able, and technical studies stayed weak, with the result that a large number of less academically able pupils left school without any skills or qualifications at all.

            The expansion of education led to increased expenditure. The proportion of the gross national product devoted to education doubled, from 3.2 per cent in 1954, to 6.5 per cent by 1970, but fell back to about 5 per cent in the 1980s. These higher levels of spending did not fulfil expectations, mainly because spending remained substantially lower than that in other industrialised countries. Perhaps the most serious failures were the continued high drop-out rate at the age of 16 and the low level of achievement in mathematics and science among school-leavers. By the mid-1980s, while over 80 per cent of pupils in the United States and over 90 per cent in Japan stayed on till the age of 18, barely one-third of British pupils did so.

I. Arguments about the purpose of education.

            There is a feeling that the schools are not succeeding - that standards are too low, that schools are not preparing young people with the skills, knowledge and personal qualities which are necessary for the world of work, and that schools have failed to instil the right social values. These are the criticisms and therefore there have been changes to meet these criticisms.

            However, the criticisms take different forms. First, there are those who believe that standards have fallen, especially in the areas of literacy and numeracy - and, indeed, unfavourable  comparisons are made with the other countries as a result of international surveys. For example, the recent Third International Mathematics and Science Survey (TIMSS) placed in England and Wales very low in mathematical achievement at 13 - although very high in science. Therefore, these critics emphasize «back to basis» and the need for more traditional teaching methods.

            Second, there are those who argue for a rather traditional curriculum which is divided into «subjects» and which calls upon those cultural standards which previous generations have known - the study of literary classics ( Shakespeare, Keats, Wordsworth)  rather than popular multi-cultural history, classical music rather than popular music, and so on. Since there are many children who would not be interested in or capable of learning within these subjects, there is a tendency for such advocates of traditional standards to support an early selection of children into «the minority» who are capable of being so educated, separated off from «the majority» who are thought to benefit more from a more technical or practical education.

            Third, there are those who question deeply the idea of a curriculum based on these traditional subjects. Many employers, for instance, think that such a curriculum by itself ill - serves the country economically. The curriculum ought to be more relevant to the world of work, providing those skills, such as computer, numeracy and literacy skills, personal qualities (such as cooperation and enterprise) and knowledge (such as economic awareness) which make people more employable.

            A very important speech which expressed those concerns and which is seen as a watershed in government policy was that of Prime Minister Callaghan at Ruskin College, Oxford, in 1976.

            «Preparing future generations for life» was the theme and he pointed to the need for greater relevance in education on four fronts:

1.   the acquisition by school leavers of basic skills which they lacked but which industry needed;

2.   the development of more positive attitudes to industry and to the economic needs of society;

3.   greater technological know-how so that they might live effectively in a technological society;

4.   the development of personal qualities for coping with an unpredictable future.

            In what follows I give details of the different contexts in which this concern for change was discussed.

a)   Economic Context

It is generally assumed that there is a close connection between economic performance and the quality and context of education and training, and that therefore the country’s poor performance economically since the second world war (compared with some other countries) is due to irrelevant and poor quality education. During the thirty years from the end of the Second World War not enough pupils stayed on beyond the compulsory school leaving age. There were too many unskilled and semi-skilled people for a much more sophisticated economy. Standards of literacy and numeracy were too low for a modern economy. There was not enough practical and technical know-how being taught.

            As a result, it was argued that there must be much closer links between school and industry, with pupils spending time in industry, with industrialists participating in the governance of schools, and with subjects and activities on the curriculum which relate much more closely to the world of work.

            Furthermore, there should be a different attitudes to learning. So quickly is the economy that people constantly have to update their knowledge and skills. There is a need for a «learning society» and for the acquisition of «generic» or «transferable» skills in communication, numeracy, problem-solving, computer technology, etc.

b)  Social Context

            There are anxieties not just about the future economy but also about the future of society. Preparing young people for adult life was what the Ruskin speech was about, and there is much more to adult life than economic success - for example, living the life of a good citizen, of a father or mother, of involvement in social and political activity. Therefore, schools are required to prepare young people for a multicultural society, to encourage tolerance between different ethnic groups, to promote social responsibility, to encourage respect for the law and democratic institutions, to develop sensibilities towards the disadvantaged and to ensure girls enjoy equal opportunities with boys. And schools have. Indeed, responded with programs of social education, citizenship, and parenthood. Moreover, they have often done this in practical ways such as organizing projects.

c)   Standards

            The need for educational change arises partly from a concern about academic standards. The sense that Britain is declining has been reinforced by statements from employers. According to them, Britain’s workforce is under-educated, under-trained and under-qualified! These criticisms of standards are pitched at different levels. First, there are worries about low standards of literacy and numeracy. Second, international comparisons give weight to misgivings about the performance of British schoolchildren in mathematics and science. And, therefore, the subsequent changes have tried to define standards much more precisely, and o have regular assessment of children’s performance against these standards.

a)  After 1944

The key educational legislation, until recently, was the 1944 Education Act. That Act supported a partnership between central government (Local Education Authorities or LEAs), teachers and the churches - with central government playing a minimal role in the curriculum.

The 1944 Education Act required the Secretary of State to promote the education of the people of England and Wales and the progressive development of institutions devoted to that purpose and to secure the effective execution by local authorities, under his control and direction, of the national policy for providing a varied and comprehensive educational service in every area.

In the decades following the Act,  «promotion» was perceived in very general terms - ensuring that there were resources adequate for all children to receive an education according to «age, ability and aptitude», providing the broad legal framework and regulations within which education should be provided (for example, the length of the school year or the division of education into primary and secondary phases), and initiating major reports on such important matters as language and mathematics teaching.

Within this framework, the LEA organized the schools. The LEA raised money through local taxation to provide education from primary right through to further and indeed higher education, and made sure that the schools and colleges were working efficiently. They employed and paid the teachers. And ultimately they had responsibility for the quality of teaching within those schools.

The Churches were key partners because historically they (particularly the Church of England) had provided a large proportion of elementary education and owned many of the schools.

The 1944 Act had to establish a new partnership between state, LEAs and the church schools.

b)After 1980

However, the changing economic, social and cultural conditions outlined in the previous section caused the government to reexamine the nature and the composition of that partnership. The questions being asked during the 1980’s included the following:

            Has central government the power to make the system respond to the changing context? Are the local authorities too local for administrating a national system and too distant for supporting local, especially parental, involvement in school? Have the parents been genuine partners in the system that affects the future welfare of their children? And what place, if any, in the partnership has been allocated to the employers, who believe they have a contribution to make to the preparation of young people for the future?

1)  New governing bodies

            Various Acts of Parliament since 1980 have made schools more accountable.

Teachers, employers and parents have been given places on the governing bodies. Governors have to publish information about the school that enables parents to make informed choices when deciding to which school they should send their child. Each LEA has to have a curriculum policy that must be considered and implemented by each governing body. Schools also must have a policy on sex education and must ensure that political indoctrination does not take place. This accountability of schools and LEAs has to be demonstrated through an annual report to be presented to a public meeting of parents. The government gave parents the right to enrol their children - given appropriate age and aptitude - at any state school of their choice, within the limits of capacity. Parents already sent their children to the local school of their choice. The decision to publish schools' examination results, however, gave parents a stark, but not necessarily well-informed, basis on which to choose the most appropriate school for their child. Increasingly parents sought access to the most successful nearby school in terms of examination results.                                                                             Far from being able to exercise their choice, large numbers of parents were now frustrated in their choice. Overall, in 1996 20 per cent of parents failed to obtain their first choice of school. In London the level was 40 per cent, undermining the whole policy of 'parental choice' and encouraging only the crudest view of educational standards. Schools found themselves competing rather than cooperating and some schools, for example in deprived urban areas, faced a downward spiral of declining enrolment followed by reduced budgets. Thus the market offered winners and losers: an improved system for the brighter or more fortunate pupils, but a worse one for the 'bottom' 40 per cent. Schools in deprived parts of cities acquired reputations as 'sink' schools. As one education journalist wrote in 1997, 'There is a clear hierarchy of schools:

private, grammar, comprehensives with plenty of nice middle-class children, comprehensives with fewer nice middle-class children and so on.'

2) Central control

            The government has looked for ways of exercising greater influence over what is taught in schools. New legislation gave the government powers to exercise detailed control over the organization and content of education. The 1988 Education Act legislated a National Curriculum and a system of National Assessment. In addition, significant changes were enacted to make possible the central financing and thus control of schools through creating a new kind of school outside LEA control (first, the provision of City Technology Colleges 9CTC), and, second, the creation of Grant Maintained Schools (GMS)). The government also significantly reduced the power of local authorities by transferring the management of schools from the LEA to the schools themselves (known as the local management of schools or LMS).

            At the same time, within this more centralized system, parents have been offered greater choice through the establishment of different kinds of schools (GMS and CTC), through the delegation of management to the governing bodies of the schools (LMS) and through the granting of parental rights to send their children to the school of their choice.

            The various Parliamentary Acts (but especially the 1988 Act) gave legal force to a massive change in the terms of the education partnership. First, the Secretary of State now has powers over the details of the curriculum and assessment. Second, a mechanism has been created whereby there can be more participation by parents (and to a much smaller degree by employers), in decisions that affect the quality of education. Third, the LEAs have been required to transfer many decisions over finance, staffing, and admissions to the schools and colleges themselves. Fourth, the LEA responsibility for the curriculum has been transferred to the Secretary of State.

3) Employer involvement

            The voice of the consumers will be heard more, and the consumer includes the employer. Several initiatives encouraged employer participation. First, and possibly the most important in the long run, has been the encouragement of business representatives on governing bodies of schools. Second, there has been a range of initiatives which have given employers a greater say in the purposes which schools are expected to serve and in the means of attaining them.

4) The role of assessment

            The government decided to develop a reformed system of examinations which would specify the standards against which the performance of individual schools and of pupils might be measured.

            The 1988 Education Act legislated for assessment of pupils at the ages of 7, 11, 14 and 16, using attainment targets which all children should normally be expected to reach at these different ages in different subjects - especially in the «foundation subjects» of English, mathematics and science. The assessments relied partly on moderated teacher-assessment, but more importantly on national, externally administrated tests.

            As a result of these national assessments, exactly where each child was in relation to all other children in terms of attainment in each subject. And it would be possible to say how each school was succeeding in these measured attainments in relationship to every other school. These assessments, have subsequently, provided the basis of national comparisons and league tables of schools.

            In the reform of National Curriculum in the early 1990’s, it was decided that, because of public examinations at 16 , the national assessment should finish at 14.

5) Inspection

            For over one hundred years, there had been an independent inspection service. The inspectors were called Her Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI) to indicate that ultimately they were accountable to the Queen, not to the government from whom they ardently preserved their independence. Until about ten years ago, HMI numbered about 500. They inspected schools and they advised the government.

            Senior HMIs were based at the Department of Education and Science (now the department for Education and Employment) but the big majority were scattered over the whole country so that they could advise locally but also be a source of information to central government. Indeed, they were known as «the ears and the eyes of the Minister».

            Much of this has now changed as government has sought greater central control. HMI has been cut back to about one third of its previous size. The Chief Inspector is now a political appointment, not someone who has arisen from the ranks of an independent inspectorate. A new office has been created, the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED), to which HMI now belong and which is much more at the service of government policy.

            Under OFSTED a very large army of «Ofsted inspectors» has been created - often teachers - who, after a brief training, are equipped to inspect schools. The initial plan was to inspect all 25,000 schools every four years and to publish a report which would be accessible to everyone. Every teacher is seen and graded. OFSTED is able to identify «failing schools» and «failing teachers».

            It has been very difficult to get rid of very poor teachers. It is now hoped that, with more regular inspection and with clearer criteria for success and failure, it will be easier to sack teachers who are consistently under performing.                                                      

          The recent changes are increasingly redescribed  in managerial and business terms, as the educational system is managed as part of the drive to be more economically competitive.

            However, one must be aware of the doubts and dismay of many in this «philosophy». First, there is little consideration of the aims of education - the values which make the relationship between teacher and learner an educational encounter, not one of «delivering a service». Second, the new language of «education» is drawn from an entirely different activity, that of business and management. The language of control, delivery, inputs and outputs, performance indicators and audits, defining products, testing against product specification, etc. Is not obviously appropriate to the development of thinking, inquiring, imagination, creativity, and so on. Third, the key role of the teacher is made peripheral to the overall design; the teacher becomes a «technician» of someone else’s curriculum.

            The changing economic and social context in Britain seemed to require a closer integration of education, training, and employment; at the same time, a sharper focus on personal development; greater concentration of the partnership to include employers and parents; and a dominant position given to central government in stipulating outcomes were all factors which led the framework of the system is adapting to the new contexts.

a)The public system of education might be illustrated as follows:

b)  Schools and the post-16 curriculum

            The maintenance of such a curriculum has been a major function of the examination system at 16, which was originally designed as a preparation for the post-16 courses leading to A-level. It is taken in single subjects, usually not more than three. These three subjects, studied in depth, in turn constituted a preparation for the single or double subject honors degrees at university. In this way the shape of the curriculum for the majority has been determined by the needs of the minority aspiring to a university place. Alongside «A» Levels, there have been, more recently, «AS» (Advanced Supplementary) Level examinations. These are worth half an «A» Level and they enable very bright students to broaden their educational experience with a «contrasting» subject (for example, the science specialist might study a foreign language).

            The present «A» and «AS» Level system, however, is thought to be in need of reform. First, it limits choice of subjects at 16 and 17 years, a time, when a more general education should be encouraged. Second, approximately 30% of students either drop out or fail - a mass failure rate amongst a group of young people from the top 30% of academic achievement who find that after two years they have no qualification. Third, the concentration on academic success thus conceived has little room for the vocationally relevant skills and personal qualities stressed by those employers who are critics of the education system. Fourth, there are over 600 «A» Level syllabuses from eight independent examination boards often with overlapping titles and content, making comparability of standards between Boards difficult.

The private sector

y 1997 8 per cent of the school population attended independent fee-paying schools, compared with under 6 per cent in 1979, and only 5 per cent in 1976. By the year 2000 the proportion may rise to almost 9 per cent, nearly back to the level in 1947 of 10 per cent. The recovery of private education in Britain is partly due to middle-class fears concerning comprehensive schools, but also to the mediocre quality possible in the state sector after decades of inadequate funding.

Although the percentage of those privately educated may be a small fraction of the total, its importance is disproportionate to its size, for this 8 per cent accounts for 23 per cent of all those passing A levels, and over 25 per cent of those gaining entry to university. Nearly 65 per cent of pupils leave fee-paying schools with one or more A levels, compared with only 14 per cent from comprehensives. Tellingly, this 8 per cent also accounts for 68 per cent of those gaining the highest grade in GCSE Physics. During the 1980s pupils at independent schools showed greater improvement in their examination results than those at state schools. In later life, those educated at fee-paying schools dominate the sources of state power and authority in government, law, the armed forces and finance.

The 'public' (in fact private, fee-paying) schools form the backbone of the independent sector. Of the several hundred public schools, the most famous are the 'Clarendon Nine', so named after a commission of inquiry into education in 1861. Their status lies in a fatally attractive combination of social superiority and antiquity, as the dates of their foundation indicate: Winchester (1382), Eton (1440), St Paul's (1509), Shrewsbury (1552), Westminster (1560), The Merchant Taylors' (1561), Rugby (1567), Harrow (1571) and Charterhouse (1611).

The golden age of the public schools, however, was the late nineteenth century, when most were founded. They were vital to the establishment of a particular set of values in the dominant professional middle classes. These values were reflected in the novel Tom Brown's Schooldays by Thomas Hughes, written in tribute to his own happy time at Rugby School. Its emphasis is on the making of gentlemen to enter one of the professions: law, medicine, the Church, the Civil Service or the colonial service. The concept of 'service', even if it only involved entering a profitable profession, was central to the public school ethos. A career in commerce, or 'mere money making' as it is referred to in Tom Brown's Schooldays, was not to be considered. As a result of such values, the public school system was traditional in its view of learning and deeply resistant to science and technology. Most public schools were located in the 'timeless' countryside, away from the vulgarity of industrial cities.

After 1945, when state-funded grammar schools were demonstrating equal or greater academic excellence, the public schools began to modernise themselves. During the 1970s most of them abolished beating and 'fagging', the system whereby new boys carried out menial tasks for senior boys, and many introduced girls into the sixth form, as a civilising influence. They made particular efforts to improve their academic and scientific quality. Traditionally boarding public schools were more popular, but since the 1970s there has been a progressive shift of balance in favour of day schools. Today only 16 per cent of pupils in private education attend boarding schools, and the number of boarders declines on average by 3 per cent each year.

Demand for public school education is now so great that many schools register pupils' names at birth. Eton maintains two lists, one for the children of 'old boys' and the other for outsiders. There are three applicants for every vacancy. Several other schools have two applicants for each vacancy, but they are careful not to expand to meet demand. In the words of one academic, 'Schools at the top of the system have a vested interest in being elitist. They would lose that characteristic if they expanded. To some extent they pride themselves on the length of their waiting lists.' This rush to private education is despite the steep rise in fees, 31 per cent between 1985 and 1988, and over 50 per cent between 1990 and 1997 when the average annual day fees were Ј5,700 and boarding fees double that figure. Sixty per cent of parents would probably send their children to fee-paying schools if they could afford to.

In order to obtain a place at a public school, children must take a competitive examination, called 'Common Entrance'. In order to pass it, most children destined for a public school education attend a preparatory (or 'prep') school until the age of 13.

Independent schools remain politically controversial. The Conservative Party believes in the fundamental freedom of parents to choose the best education for their children. The Labour Party disagrees, arguing that in reality only the wealthier citizens have this freedom of choice. In the words of Hugh Gaitskell, the Labour leader in 1953, 'We really cannot go on with a system in which wealthy parents are able to buy what they and most people believe to be a better education for their children. The system is wrong and must be changed.' But since then no Labour government has dared to abolish them.

There can be no doubt that a better academic education can be obtained in some of the public schools. In 1993 92 of the 100 schools with the best A-level results were fee-paying. But the argument that parents will not wish to pay once state schools offer equally good education is misleading, because independent schools offer social status also. Unfortunately education depends not only on quality schools but also on the home environment. The background from which pupils come greatly affects the encouragement they receive to study. Middle-class parents are likely to be better able, and more concerned, to support their children's study than low-income parents who themselves feel they failed at school. State-maintained schools must operate with fewer resources, and in more difficult circumstances, particularly in low-income areas. In addition, the public school system creams off many of the ablest teachers from the state sector.

The public school system is socially divisive, breeding an atmosphere of elitism and leaving some outside the system feeling socially or intellectually inferior, and in some cases intimidated by the prestige attached to public schools. The system fosters a distinct culture, one based not only upon social superiority but also upon deference. As one leading journalist, Jeremy Paxman, himself an ex-public schoolboy remarked, The purpose of a public school education is to teach you to respect people you don't respect.' In the words of Anthony Sampson, himself an ex-pupil of Westminster, the public school elite 'reinforces and perpetuates a class system whose divisions run through all British institutions, separating language, attitudes and motivations'.

Those who attend these schools continue to dominate the institutions at the heart of the British state, and seem likely to do so for some time to come. At the beginning of the 1990s public schools accounted for 22 out of 24 of the army's top generals, two-thirds of the Bank of England's external directors, 33 out of 39 top English judges, and ambassadors in the 15 most important diplomatic missions abroad. Of the 200 richest people in Britain no fewer than 35 had attended Eton. Eton and Winchester continue to dominate the public school scene, and the wider world beyond. As Sampson asks, 'Can the products of two schools (Winchester and Eton), it might be asked, really effectively represent the other 99.5 per cent of the people in this diverse country who went to neither mediaeval foundation?' The concept of service was once at the heart of the public school ethos, but it is questionable whether it still is. A senior Anglican bishop noted in 1997, 'A headmaster told me recently that the whole concept of service had gone. Now they all want to become merchant bankers and lawyers.'

There are two arguments that qualify the merit of the public schools, apart from the criticism that they are socially divisive. It is inconceivable that the very best intellectual material of the country resides solely among those able to attend such schools. If one accepts that the brightest and best pupils are in fact spread across the social spectrum, one must conclude that an elitist system of education based primarily upon wealth rather than ability must involve enormous wastage. The other serious qualification regards the public school ethos which is so rooted in tradition, authority and a narrow idea of 'gentlemanly' professions. Even a century after it tried to turn its pupils into gentlemen, the public school culture still discourages, possibly unconsciously, its pupils from entering industry. 'It is no accident,' Sampson comments, 'that most formidable industrialists in Britain come from right outside the public school system, and many from right outside Britain.'

Britain will be unable to harness its real intellectual potential until it can break loose from a divisive culture that should belong in the past, and can create its future elite from the nation's schoolchildren as a whole. In 1996 a radical Conservative politician argued for turning public schools into centres of excellence which would admit children solely on ability, regardless of wealth or social background, with the help of government funding. It would be a way of using the best of the private sector for the nation as a whole. It is just such an idea that Labour might find attractive, if it is able to tackle the more widespread and fundamental shortcomings of the state education system.

Further and higher education

reparation for adult life» includes training in the skills required for a job. These skills can be pitched at different levels - highly job-specific and not requiring much thought in their application, or «generalisable» and applicable to different kinds of employment.

            Vocational courses are concerned with the teaching of job-related skills, whether specific or generalisable. They can be based in industry, and «open learning» techniques make this increasingly likely, although in the past, they have normally been taught in colleges of further education, with students given day release from work. Vocational training has not been an activity for schools. But some critics think that schools should provide it for non-academic pupils. One major initiative back in 1982, was the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative (TVEI) in which schools received money if they were able to build into the curriculum vocationally-related content ant activities - more technology, business studies, industry related work and visits, etc. But all this got lost in 1988 with the imposition of a National Curriculum was reformed, providing opportunities for vocational studies to be introduced at 14.

            But the real changes in vocational training were to be seen outside the schools. The curriculum in colleges of further education has been closely determined by vocational examination bodies which decide what the student should be able to do in order to receive a qualification as, for example, a plumber or a hairdresser. These qualifications were pitched at different levels - from relatively low-skilled operative to higher-skilled craft and technician. Obtaining these qualifications often required an apprenticeship, with day release in a college of further education for more theoretical  study.

            Vocational training always has had a relatively low status in Britain. The «practical» and the «vocational» have seldom given access to university or to the prestigious and professional jobs.

Further education has traditionally been characterised by part-time vocational courses for those who leave school at the age of 16 but need to acquire a skill, be that in the manual, technical or clerical field. In all, about three million students enrol each year in part-time courses at further education (FE) colleges, some released by their employers and a greater number unemployed. In addition there have always been a much smaller proportion in full-time training. In 1985 this figure was a meagre 400,000, but by 1995 this had doubled. Given Labour's emphasis on improving the skills level of all school-leavers, this expansion will continue. Vocational training, most of which is conducted at the country's 550 further education colleges is bound to be an important component.

Higher education has also undergone a massive expansion. In 1985 only 573,000, 16 per cent of young people, were enrolled in full-time higher education. Ten years later the number was 1,150,000, no less than 30 per cent of their age group.

This massive expansion was achieved by greatly enlarging access to undergraduate courses, but also by authorising the old polytechnics to grant their own degree awards, and also to rename themselves as universities. Thus there are today 90 universities, compared with 47 in 1990, and only seventeen in 1945. They fall into five broad categories: the medieval English foundations, the medieval Scottish ones, the nineteenth-century 'redbrick' ones, the twentieth-century 'plate-glass' ones, and finally the previous polytechnics. They are all private institutions, receiving direct grants from central government.

Oxford and Cambridge, founded in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries respectively, are easily the most famous of Britain's universities. Today 'Oxbridge', as the two together are known, educate less than one-twentieth of Britain's total university student population. But they continue to attract many of the best brains and to mesmerise an even greater number, partly on account of their prestige, but also on account of the seductive beauty of many of their buildings and surroundings.

Both universities grew gradually, as federations of independent colleges, most of which were founded in the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In both universities, however, new colleges are periodically established, for example Green College, Oxford (1979) and Robinson College, Cambridge (1977).

In the nineteenth century more universities were established to respond to the greatly increased demand for educated people as a result of the Industrial Revolution and the expansion of Britain's overseas empire. Many of these were sited in the industrial centres, for example Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham, Newcastle, Liverpool and Bristol.

With the expansion of higher education in the 1960s 'plate-glass' universities were established, some named after counties or regions rather than old cities, for example Sussex, Kent, East Anglia and Strathclyde. Over 50 polytechnics and similar higher education institutes acquired university status in 1992. There is also a highly successful Open University, which provides every person in Britain with the opportunity to study for a degree, without leaving their home. It is particularly designed for adults who missed the opportunity for higher education earlier in life. It conducts learning through correspondence, radio and television, and also through local study centres.

University examinations are for Bachelor of Arts, or of Science (BA or BSc) on completion of the undergraduate course, and Master of Arts or of Science (MA or MSc) on completion of postgraduate work, usually a one- or two-year course involving some original research. Some students continue to complete a three-year perio of original research for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). The bachelor degree is normal classed, with about 5 per cent normally gaining First, about 30 per cent gaining an Upper Seconi or 2.1, perhaps 40 per cent gaining a Lower Second, or 2.2, and the balance getting either i Third, a Pass or failing. Approximately 15 per cei fail to complete their degree course.

In addition there are a large number of specialis higher education institutions in the realm of the performing and visual arts. For example, there a four leading conservatories: the Royal Academy Music, the Royal College of Music, Trinity College of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music.

There are a large number of art colleges, of whi the most famous is the Royal College of Art, where both Henry Moore and David Hockney once studied. Other colleges cater for dance, film-making and other specialist areas in arts.

In spite of the high fees, Britain's universities, Fl colleges and English language schools host a  number of foreign students, in 1996 there were fewer than 158,000.

Female undergraduates have greatly increased proportionately in recent years. In the mid-1960 they were only 28 per cent of the intake, became 41 per cent by the early 1980s, and were 51 per cent by 1996. There is still an unfortunate separation of the sexes in fields of chosen study, arising from occupational tradition and social expectations. Caring for others is still a 'proper' career for women; building bridges, it seems, is not. Unless one believes women's brains are better geared to nursing and other forms of caring and men's to bridge-building, one must conclude that social expectations still hinder women and men from realising their potential. Students from poorer backgrounds are seriously underrepresented in higher education. Although more in social categories C, D and E are now enrolled, it is the more prosperous social categories A and B which have benefited most from university expansion. For Labour there are two issues here:

equality of opportunity, and maximising all of society's intellectual potential.

Ethnic minorities' representation is growing: 1 3 per cent in 1996 compared with only 10.7 per cent in 1990. It is noteworthy that their university representation exceeds their proportion within the whole population, a measure of their commitment to higher education.

In 1988 a new funding body, the University Funding Council, was established, with power to require universities to produce a certain number of qualified people in specific fields. It is under the UFC's watchful eye that the universities have been forced to double their student intake, and each university department is assessed on its performance and quality. The fear, of course, is that the greatly increased quantity of students that universities must now take might lead to a loss of academic quality.

Expansion has led to a growing funding gap. Universities have been forced to seek sponsorship from the commercial world, wealthy patrons and also from their alumni. The Conservative Party also decided to reduce maintenance grants but to offer students loans in order to finance their studies. However, the funding gap has continued to grow and Labour shocked many who had voted for it by introducing tuition fees at 1,000 pounds per annum in 1998. Although poorer students were to be exempted it was feared that, even with student loans, up to 10 per cent of those planning to go to university would abandon the idea. One effect of the financial burden is that more students are living at home while continuing their studies: about 50 per cent at the ex-polytechnics, but only 15 per cent at the older universities.

Today many university science and technology departments, for example at Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, Imperial College London, and Strathclyde, are among the best in Europe. The concern is whether they will continue to be so in the future. Academics' pay has fallen so far behinc other professions and behind academic salaries elsewhere, that many of the best brains have gon< abroad. Adequate pay and sufficient research funding to keep the best in Britain remains a majo challenge.

As with the schools system, so also with higher education: there is a real problem about the exclusivity of Britain's two oldest universities. While Oxbridge is no longer the preserve of a social elite it retains its exclusive, narrow and spell-binding culture. Together with the public school system, it creates a narrow social and intellectual channel from which the nation's leaders are almost exclusively drawn. In 1996 few people were in top jobs in the Civil Service, the armed forces, the law or finance, who had not been either to a public school or Oxbridge, or to both.

The problem is not the quality of education offered either in the independent schools or Oxbridge. The problem is cultural. Can the products of such exclusive establishments remain closely in touch with the remaining 95 per cent of the population? If the expectation is that Oxbridge, particularly, will continue to dominate the controlling positions in the state and economy, is the country ignoring equal talent which does not have the Oxbridge label? As with the specialisation at the age of 16 for A levels, the danger is that Britain's governing elite is too narrow, both in the kind of education and where it was acquired. It is just possible that the new Labour government, which itself reflects a much wider field of life experience in Britain, will mark the beginning of significantly fuller popular participation in the controlling institutions of state.

Present situation

            The educational system - its organization, its control, its content - is changing rapidly to meet the perceived needs of the country - the need to improve standards and to respond  to a rapidly changing and competitive economy. Those changes might be summarized in the following way.

            First, there is much greater central control over what is taught. Second, what is taught is seen in rather traditional terms - organized in terms of subjects rather than in response to the learning needs of the pupils. Third, however, there is an attempt to be responsive to the economic needs of the country, with an emphasis upon vocational studies and training. Fourth, there is a rapid expansion of those who stay in education beyond the compulsory age, making use of the «three-track system» of  «A» Level, GNVQ (General National Vocational Qualifications) and NVQ (National Vocational Qualifications). Fifth, although the content of education is centrally controlled, its «delivery» pays homage to the «market» by encouraging choice between different institutions so that funding follows popular choice (i.e. the more popular the school with parents, the more money it gets, thereby providing an incentive to schools and colleges to improve their performance.

Education under Labour

ducation was the central theme of the new Labour government. It promised a huge range of improvements: high-quality education for all four-year-olds whose parents wanted it and lower pupil-teacher ratios, in particular that children up to the age of eight children would never be in classes of over 30 pupils. It also declared that all children at primary school would spend one hour each day on reading and writing, and another hour each day on numeracy, the basic skills for all employment. When Labour took office only 57 per cent of children reached national literacy targets by the time they left primary school, and only 55 per cent reached similar targets in maths. The government pledged to raise these proportions to 80 per cent and 75 per cent respectively. It also established a new central authority responsible for both qualifications and the curriculum, to ensure that these were, in the government's own words, 'high quality, coherent and flexible'. It warned that it intended to evolve a single certificate to replace A levels and vocational qualifications, and possibly to reflect a broad range of study rather than the narrow specialism of the A-level system. Because 30 per cent of students who started A-level courses failed to acquire one, it also wanted to create a more flexible system that would allow students still to attain recognised standards of education and training on the road to A levels. However, unlike France or Germany, an increasing proportion of those taking exams at this standard were actually passing.

The government also promised to improve the quality of the teaching staff, with a mandatory qualification for all newly appointed heads of schools, to improve teacher training, to establish a General Teaching Council, which would restore teacher morale and raise standards, and to introduce more effective means of removing inefficient teachers. It also promised to look at the growing problem of boys underachieving at school compared with girls. Finally, Labour asked for its record to be judged at the end of its first term in office, in 2002.

Questions

1.   When do the british start their education?

2.   Do you agree that the british education has problems?

3.   What were the lacks of British education?

4.   Who can study in public schools?

5.   Does the word «public» reflect the real principle of that schools?

6.   What political acts became a turning point in British education?

7.   What is the most well-spread opinion about the vocational courses?

8.   What do you think about the quality of higher education in Britain?

9.   What are the main principles of the Labour Patry (concerning education)

10. How had the role of parents in the children’s education changed?

11. How did the changing economic and social situation influence the system of education?

12. What are the most prestigeous schools in Britain?

13. Are there students from other countries in British schools and universities?

14. Is the nursary school compulsory?

15. How do you think: do the Concervative principles of education differ from that of Labour?

16. What are the aims of education in Britain today?

17. Did the level of education become higher after the reforms?

18. What is the GCSE?

19. What types of schools does the british system of education includes?

20. Would you like to study in Britain? (Give your argument for or against it).

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Education in Britain реферат - Образовательный портал Рефератус

MOSCOW STATE TEACHER`S TRAINING UNIVERSITY COURSE PAPER Education in the United Kingdom Written by Isaeva Tatiana group 301 Checked by Makhmuryan K. MOSCOW 2001 PLAN 1. Introduction 2. Primary and secondary education 3. The story of British schools 4. Arguments aboout the purpose of education 5. Changing political control 6. The public system of education (a table) 7. The private sector 8. Further and higher education 9. Conclusion (Education under Labour) 10.Questions Introduction E ducation in England is not as perfect as we, foreigners think. There are plenty of stereotypes, which make us think, that British education is only Oxford and Cambrige, but there are also many educational problems.During the last fifteen years or so, there have been unprecedented changes in the system of education in England and Wales. Ill try to explain the changes and the reasons for them. In my work I will also give a description of the system of education, which differs from that in Russia very much. Primary and secondary education S chooling is compulsory for 12 years, for all children aged five to 16. There are two voluntary years of schooling thereafter. Children may attend either state-funded or fee-paying independent schools. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the primary cycle lasts from five to 11. Generally speaking, children enter infant school, moving on to junior school (often in the same building) at the age of seven, and then on to secondary school at the age of 11. Roughly 90 per cent of children receive their secondary education at comprehensive schools. For those who wish to stay on, secondary school can include the two final years of secondary education, sometimes known in Britain (for historical reasons) as the sixth form. In many parts of the country, these two years are spent at a tertiary or sixth-form college, which provides academic and vocational courses. Two public academic examinations are set, one on completion of the compulsory cycle of education at the age of 16, and one on completion of the two voluntary years. At 16 pupils take the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), introduced in 1989 to replace two previous examinations, one academic and the other indicating completion of secondary education. It was introduced to provide one examination whereby the whole range of ability could be judged, rather than having two classes of achievers; and also to assess children on classwork and homework as well as in the examination room, as a more reliable form of assessment. During the two voluntary years of schooling, pupils specialise in two or three subjects and take the General Certificate of Education (always known simply as GCE) Advanced Level, or A level examination, usually with a view to entry to a university or other college of higher education. New examinations. Advanced Supplementary (AS) levels, were introduced in 1989, to provide a wider range of subjects to study, a recognition that English education has traditionally been overly narrow. The debate about the need for a wider secondary level curriculum continues, and Labour is likely to introduce more changes at this level. These examinations are not set by the government, but by independent examination boards, most of which are associated with a particular university or group of universities. Labour may replace these boards with one national board of examination. A new qualification was introduced in 1992 for pupils who are skills, rather than academically, orientated, the General National Vocational Qualification, known as GNVQ. This examination is taken at three distinct levels: the Foundation which has equivalent standing to low-grade passes in four subjects of GCSE; the Intermediate GNVQ which is equivalent to high-grade passes in four subjects of GCSE; and the Advanced GNVQ, equivalent to two passes at A level and acceptable for university entrance. The academic year begins in late summer, usually in September, and is divided into three terms, with holidays for Christmas, Easter and for the month of August, although the exact dates vary slightly from area to area. In addition each term there is normally a mid-term one-week holiday, known as half-term. The story of British schools F or largely historical reasons, the schools system is complicated, inconsistent and highly varied. Most of the oldest schools, of which the most famous are Eton, Harrow, Winchester and Westminster, are today independent, fee-paying, public schools for boys. Most of these were established to create a body of literate men to fulfil the administrative, political, legal and religious requirements of the late Middle Ages. From the sixteenth century onwards, many grammar schools were established, often with large grants of money from wealthy men, in order to provide a local educational facility. From the 1870s local authorities were required to establish elementary schools, paid for by the local community, and to compel attendance by all boys and girls up to the age of 1 3. By 1900 almost total attendance had been achieved. Each authority, with its locally elected councillors, was responsible for the curriculum. Although a general consensus developed concerning the major part of the school curriculum, a strong feeling of local control continued and interference by central government was resented. A number of secondary schools were also established by local authorities, modelled on the public schools. The 1944 Education Act introduced free compulsory secondary education. Almost all children attended one of two kinds of secondary school. The decision was made on the results obtained in the 11 plus examination, taken in the last year of primary school. Eighty per cent of pupils went to secondary modern schools where they were expected to obtain sufficient education for manual, skilled and clerical employment, but where academic expectations were modest. The remaining 20 per cent went to grammar schools. Some of these were old foundations which now received a direct grant from central government, but the majority were funded through the local authority. Grammar school pupils were expected to go on to university or some other form of higher education. A large number of the grammar or high schools were single sex. In addition there were, and continue to be, a number of voluntary state-supported primary and secondary schools, most of them under the management of the Church of England or the Roman Catholic Church, which usually own the school buildings. By the 1960s there was increasing criticism of this streaming of ability, particularly by the political Left. It was recognised that many children performed inconsistently, and that those who failed the 11 plus examination were denied the chance to do better later. Early selection also reinforced the divisions of social class, and was wasteful of human potential. A government report in 1968 produced evidence that an expectation of failure became increasingly fulfilled, with secondary modern pupils aged 14 doing significantly worse than they had at the age of eight. Labours solution was to introduce a new type of school, the comprehensive, a combination of grammar and secondary modern under one roof, so that all the children could be continually assessed and given appropriate teaching. Between 1965 and 1980 almost all the old grammar and secondary modern schools were replaced, mainly by coeducational comprehensives. The measure caused much argument for two principal reasons. Many local authorities, particularly Conservative-controlled ones, did not wish to lose the excellence of their grammar schools, and many resented Labours interference in education, which was still considered a local responsibility. However, despite the pressure to change school structures, each school, in consultation with the local authority, remained in control of its curriculum. In practice the result of the reform was very mixed: the best comprehensives aimed at grammar school academic standards, while the worst sank to secondary modern ones. One unforeseen but damaging result was the refusal of many grammar schools to join the comprehensive experiment. Of the 174 direct-grant grammar schools, 119 decided to leave the state system rather than become comprehensive, and duly became independent fee-paying establishments. This had two effects. Grammar schools had provided an opportunity for children from all social backgrounds to excel academically at the same level as those attending fee-paying independent public schools. The loss of these schools had a demoralising effect on the comprehensive experiment and damaged its chances of success, but led to a revival of independent schools at a time when they seemed to be slowly shrinking. The introduction of comprehensive schools thus unintentionally reinforced an educational elite which only the children of wealthier parents could hope to join. Comprehensive schools became the standard form of secondary education (other than in one or two isolated areas, where grammar schools and secondary moderns survived). However, except among the best comprehensives they lost for a while the excellence of the old grammar schools. Alongside the introduction of comprehensives there was a move away from traditional teaching and discipline towards what was called progressive education.-This entailed a change from more formal teaching and factual learning tc greater pupil participation and discussion, with greater emphasis on comprehension and less on the acquisition of knowledge. Not everyone approved, particularly on the political Right. There was increasing criticism of the lack of discipline and of formal learning, and a demand to return tc old-fashioned methods. From the 1960s there was also greater emphasis on education and training than ever before, with many colleges of further education established to provide technical or vocational training. However, British education remained too academic for the less able, and technical studies stayed weak, with the result that a large number of less academically able pupils left school without any skills or qualifications at all. The expansion of education led to increased expenditure. The proportion of the gross national product devoted to education doubled, from 3.2 per cent in 1954, to 6.5 per cent by 1970, but fell back to about 5 per cent in the 1980s. These higher levels of spending did not fulfil expectations, mainly because spending remained substantially lower than that in other industrialised countries. Perhaps the most serious failures were the continued high drop-out rate at the age of 16 and the low level of achievement in mathematics and science among school-leavers. By the mid-1980s, while over 80 per cent of pupils in the United States and over 90 per cent in Japan stayed on till the age of 18, barely one-third of British pupils did so. I. Arguments about the purpose of education. There is a feeling that the schools are not succeeding - that standards are too low, that schools are not preparing young people with the skills, knowledge and personal qualities which are necessary for the world of work, and that schools have failed to instil the right social values. These are the criticisms and therefore there have been changes to meet these criticisms. However, the criticisms take different forms. First, there are those who believe that standards have fallen, especially in the areas of literacy and numeracy - and, indeed, unfavourable comparisons are made with the other countries as a result of international surveys. For example, the recent Third International Mathematics and Science Survey (TIMSS) placed in England and Wales very low in mathematical achievement at 13 - although very high in science. Therefore, these critics emphasize «back to basis» and the need for more traditional teaching methods. Second, there are those who argue for a rather traditional curriculum which is divided into «subjects» and which calls upon those cultural standards which previous generations have known - the study of literary classics ( Shakespeare, Keats, Wordsworth) rather than popular multi-cultural history, classical music rather than popular music, and so on. Since there are many children who would not be interested in or capable of learning within these subjects, there is a tendency for such advocates of traditional standards to support an early selection of children into «the minority» who are capable of being so educated, separated off from «the majority» who are thought to benefit more from a more technical or practical education. Third, there are those who question deeply the idea of a curriculum based on these traditional subjects. Many employers, for instance, think that such a curriculum by itself ill - serves the country economically. The curriculum ought to be more relevant to the world of work, providing those skills, such as computer, numeracy and literacy skills, personal qualities (such as cooperation and enterprise) and knowledge (such as economic awareness) which make people more employable. A very important speech which expressed those concerns and which is seen as a watershed in government policy was that of Prime Minister Callaghan at Ruskin College, Oxford, in 1976. «Preparing future generations for life» was the theme and he pointed to the need for greater relevance in education on four fronts: 1. the acquisition by school leavers of basic skills which they lacked but which industry needed; 2. the development of more positive attitudes to industry and to the economic needs of society; 3. greater technological know-how so that they might live effectively in a technological society; 4. the development of personal qualities for coping with an unpredictable future. In what follows I give details of the different contexts in which this concern for change was discussed. a) Economic Context It is generally assumed that there is a close connection between economic performance and the quality and context of education and training, and that therefore the countrys poor performance economically since the second world war (compared with some other countries) is due to irrelevant and poor quality education. During the thirty years from the end of the Second World War not enough pupils stayed on beyond the compulsory school leaving age. There were too many unskilled and semi-skilled people for a much more sophisticated economy. Standards of literacy and numeracy were too low for a modern economy. There was not enough practical and technical know-how being taught. As a result, it was argued that there must be much closer links between school and industry, with pupils spending time in industry, with industrialists participating in the governance of schools, and with subjects and activities on the curriculum which relate much more closely to the world of work. Furthermore, there should be a different attitudes to learning. So quickly is the economy that people constantly have to update their knowledge and skills. There is a need for a «learning society» and for the acquisition of «generic» or «transferable» skills in communication, numeracy, problem-solving, computer technology, etc. b) Social Context There are anxieties not just about the future economy but also about the future of society. Preparing young people for adult life was what the Ruskin speech was about, and there is much more to adult life than economic success - for example, living the life of a good citizen, of a father or mother, of involvement in social and political activity. Therefore, schools are required to prepare young people for a multicultural society, to encourage tolerance between different ethnic groups, to promote social responsibility, to encourage respect for the law and democratic institutions, to develop sensibilities towards the disadvantaged and to ensure girls enjoy equal opportunities with boys. And schools have. Indeed, responded with programs of social education, citizenship, and parenthood. Moreover, they have often done this in practical ways such as organizing projects. c) Standards The need for educational change arises partly from a concern about academic standards. The sense that Britain is declining has been reinforced by statements from employers. According to them, Britains workforce is under-educated, under-trained and under-qualified! These criticisms of standards are pitched at different levels. First, there are worries about low standards of literacy and numeracy. Second, international comparisons give weight to misgivings about the performance of British schoolchildren in mathematics and science. And, therefore, the subsequent changes have tried to define standards much more precisely, and o have regular assessment of childrens performance against these standards. II. Changing Political Control a) After 1944 The key educational legislation, until recently, was the 1944 Education Act. That Act supported a partnership between central government (Local Education Authorities or LEAs), teachers and the churches - with central government playing a minimal role in the curriculum. The 1944 Education Act required the Secretary of State to promote the education of the people of England and Wales and the progressive development of institutions devoted to that purpose and to secure the effective execution by local authorities, under his control and direction, of the national policy for providing a varied and comprehensive educational service in every area. In the decades following the Act, «promotion» was perceived in very general terms - ensuring that there were resources adequate for all children to receive an education according to «age, ability and aptitude», providing the broad legal framework and regulations within which education should be provided (for example, the length of the school year or the division of education into primary and secondary phases), and initiating major reports on such important matters as language and mathematics teaching. Within this framework, the LEA organized the schools. The LEA raised money through local taxation to provide education from primary right through to further and indeed higher education, and made sure that the schools and colleges were working efficiently. They employed and paid the teachers. And ultimately they had responsibility for the quality of teaching within those schools. The Churches were key partners because historically they (particularly the Church of England) had provided a large proportion of elementary education and owned many of the schools. The 1944 Act had to establish a new partnership between state, LEAs and the church schools. b)After 1980 However, the changing economic, social and cultural conditions outlined in the previous section caused the government to reexamine the nature and the composition of that partnership. The questions being asked during the 1980s included the following: Has central government the power to make the system respond to the changing context? Are the local authorities too local for administrating a national system and too distant for supporting local, especially parental, involvement in school? Have the parents been genuine partners in the system that affects the future welfare of their children? And what place, if any, in the partnership has been allocated to the employers, who believe they have a contribution to make to the preparation of young people for the future? 1) New governing bodies Various Acts of Parliament since 1980 have made schools more accountable. Teachers, employers and parents have been given places on the governing bodies. Governors have to publish information about the school that enables parents to make informed choices when deciding to which school they should send their child. Each LEA has to have a curriculum policy that must be considered and implemented by each governing body. Schools also must have a policy on sex education and must ensure that political indoctrination does not take place. This accountability of schools and LEAs has to be demonstrated through an annual report to be presented to a public meeting of parents. The government gave parents the right to enrol their children - given appropriate age and aptitude - at any state school of their choice, within the limits of capacity. Parents already sent their children to the local school of their choice. The decision to publish schools examination results, however, gave parents a stark, but not necessarily well-informed, basis on which to choose the most appropriate school for their child. Increasingly parents sought access to the most successful nearby school in terms of examination results. Far from being able to exercise their choice, large numbers of parents were now frustrated in their choice. Overall, in 1996 20 per cent of parents failed to obtain their first choice of school. In London the level was 40 per cent, undermining the whole policy of parental choice and encouraging only the crudest view of educational standards. Schools found themselves competing rather than cooperating and some schools, for example in deprived urban areas, faced a downward spiral of declining enrolment followed by reduced budgets. Thus the market offered winners and losers: an improved system for the brighter or more fortunate pupils, but a worse one for the bottom 40 per cent. Schools in deprived parts of cities acquired reputations as sink schools. As one education journalist wrote in 1997, There is a clear hierarchy of schools: private, grammar, comprehensives with plenty of nice middle-class children, comprehensives with fewer nice middle-class children and so on. 2) Central control The government has looked for ways of exercising greater influence over what is taught in schools. New legislation gave the government powers to exercise detailed control over the organization and content of education. The 1988 Education Act legislated a National Curriculum and a system of National Assessment. In addition, significant changes were enacted to make possible the central financing and thus control of schools through creating a new kind of school outside LEA control (first, the provision of City Technology Colleges 9CTC), and, second, the creation of Grant Maintained Schools (GMS)). The government also significantly reduced the power of local authorities by transferring the management of schools from the LEA to the schools themselves (known as the local management of schools or LMS). At the same time, within this more centralized system, parents have been offered greater choice through the establishment of different kinds of schools (GMS and CTC), through the delegation of management to the governing bodies of the schools (LMS) and through the granting of parental rights to send their children to the school of their choice. The various Parliamentary Acts (but especially the 1988 Act) gave legal force to a massive change in the terms of the education partnership. First, the Secretary of State now has powers over the details of the curriculum and assessment. Second, a mechanism has been created whereby there can be more participation by parents (and to a much smaller degree by employers), in decisions that affect the quality of education. Third, the LEAs have been required to transfer many decisions over finance, staffing, and admissions to the schools and colleges themselves. Fourth, the LEA responsibility for the curriculum has been transferred to the Secretary of State. 3) Employer involvement The voice of the consumers will be heard more, and the consumer includes the employer. Several initiatives encouraged employer participation. First, and possibly the most important in the long run, has been the encouragement of business representatives on governing bodies of schools. Second, there has been a range of initiatives which have given employers a greater say in the purposes which schools are expected to serve and in the means of attaining them. 4) The role of assessment The government decided to develop a reformed system of examinations which would specify the standards against which the performance of individual schools and of pupils might be measured. The 1988 Education Act legislated for assessment of pupils at the ages of 7, 11, 14 and 16, using attainment targets which all children should normally be expected to reach at these different ages in different subjects - especially in the «foundation subjects» of English, mathematics and science. The assessments relied partly on moderated teacher-assessment, but more importantly on national, externally administrated tests. As a result of these national assessments, exactly where each child was in relation to all other children in terms of attainment in each subject. And it would be possible to say how each school was succeeding in these measured attainments in relationship to every other school. These assessments, have subsequently, provided the basis of national comparisons and league tables of schools. In the reform of National Curriculum in the early 1990s, it was decided that, because of public examinations at 16 , the national assessment should finish at 14. 5) Inspection For over one hundred years, there had been an independent inspection service. The inspectors were called Her Majestys Inspectors (HMI) to indicate that ultimately they were accountable to the Queen, not to the government from whom they ardently preserved their independence. Until about ten years ago, HMI numbered about 500. They inspected schools and they advised the government. Senior HMIs were based at the Department of Education and Science (now the department for Education and Employment) but the big majority were scattered over the whole country so that they could advise locally but also be a source of information to central government. Indeed, they were known as «the ears and the eyes of the Minister». Much of this has now changed as government has sought greater central control. HMI has been cut back to about one third of its previous size. The Chief Inspector is now a political appointment, not someone who has arisen from the ranks of an independent inspectorate. A new office has been created, the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED), to which HMI now belong and which is much more at the service of government policy. Under OFSTED a very large army of «Ofsted inspectors» has been created - often teachers - who, after a brief training, are equipped to inspect schools. The initial plan was to inspect all 25,000 schools every four years and to publish a report which would be accessible to everyone. Every teacher is seen and graded. OFSTED is able to identify «failing schools» and «failing teachers». It has been very difficult to get rid of very poor teachers. It is now hoped that, with more regular inspection and with clearer criteria for success and failure, it will be easier to sack teachers who are consistently under performing. The recent changes are increasingly redescribed in managerial and business terms, as the educational system is managed as part of the drive to be more economically competitive. However, one must be aware of the doubts and dismay of many in this «philosophy». First, there is little consideration of the aims of education - the values which make the relationship between teacher and learner an educational encounter, not one of «delivering a service». Second, the new language of «education» is drawn from an entirely different activity, that of business and management. The language of control, delivery, inputs and outputs, performance indicators and audits, defining products, testing against product specification, etc. Is not obviously appropriate to the development of thinking, inquiring, imagination, creativity, and so on. Third, the key role of the teacher is made peripheral to the overall design; the teacher becomes a «technician» of someone elses curriculum. The changing economic and social context in Britain seemed to require a closer integration of education, training, and employment; at the same time, a sharper focus on personal development; greater concentration of the partnership to include employers and parents; and a dominant position given to central government in stipulating outcomes were all factors which led the framework of the system is adapting to the new contexts. a)The public system of education might be illustrated as follows: AgeType of schoolNational exams and assessments4Nursery school (optional and where available)Beginning of compulsory education5Primary schoolBaseline assessment6Primary school7Primary schoolAssessment Key Stage 18Primary school of Middle school9Primary school of Middle school10Primary school of Middle school11Secondary school of Middle schoolAssessment Key Stage 212Secondary school of Middle school13Secondary school of Middle school14Secondary SchoolAssessment Key Stage 315Secondary SchoolStart of GCSE course16Secondary SchoolGCSE examsEnd of compulsory education17Secondary School Sixth Form College of Further Education Work Training SchemeStart of A-level course GNVQ NVQ18Secondary School Sixth Form College of Further Education Work Training SchemeA-level exams GNVQ NVQ b) Schools and the post-16 curriculum The maintenance of such a curriculum has been a major function of the examination system at 16, which was originally designed as a preparation for the post-16 courses leading to A-level. It is taken in single subjects, usually not more than three. These three subjects, studied in depth, in turn constituted a preparation for the single or double subject honors degrees at university. In this way the shape of the curriculum for the majority has been determined by the needs of the minority aspiring to a university place. Alongside «A» Levels, there have been, more recently, «AS» (Advanced Supplementary) Level examinations. These are worth half an «A» Level and they enable very bright students to broaden their educational experience with a «contrasting» subject (for example, the science specialist might study a foreign language). The present «A» and «AS» Level system, however, is thought to be in need of reform. First, it limits choice of subjects at 16 and 17 years, a time, when a more general education should be encouraged. Second, approximately 30% of students either drop out or fail - a mass failure rate amongst a group of young people from the top 30% of academic achievement who find that after two years they have no qualification. Third, the concentration on academic success thus conceived has little room for the vocationally relevant skills and personal qualities stressed by those employers who are critics of the education system. Fourth, there are over 600 «A» Level syllabuses from eight independent examination boards often with overlapping titles and content, making comparability of standards between Boards difficult. The private sector B y 1997 8 per cent of the school population attended independent fee-paying schools, compared with under 6 per cent in 1979, and only 5 per cent in 1976. By the year 2000 the proportion may rise to almost 9 per cent, nearly back to the level in 1947 of 10 per cent. The recovery of private education in Britain is partly due to middle-class fears concerning comprehensive schools, but also to the mediocre quality possible in the state sector after decades of inadequate funding. Although the percentage of those privately educated may be a small fraction of the total, its importance is disproportionate to its size, for this 8 per cent accounts for 23 per cent of all those passing A levels, and over 25 per cent of those gaining entry to university. Nearly 65 per cent of pupils leave fee-paying schools with one or more A levels, compared with only 14 per cent from comprehensives. Tellingly, this 8 per cent also accounts for 68 per cent of those gaining the highest grade in GCSE Physics. During the 1980s pupils at independent schools showed greater improvement in their examination results than those at state schools. In later life, those educated at fee-paying schools dominate the sources of state power and authority in government, law, the armed forces and finance. The public (in fact private, fee-paying) schools form the backbone of the independent sector. Of the several hundred public schools, the most famous are the Clarendon Nine, so named after a commission of inquiry into education in 1861. Their status lies in a fatally attractive combination of social superiority and antiquity, as the dates of their foundation indicate: Winchester (1382), Eton (1440), St Pauls (1509), Shrewsbury (1552), Westminster (1560), The Merchant Taylors (1561), Rugby (1567), Harrow (1571) and Charterhouse (1611). The golden age of the public schools, however, was the late nineteenth century, when most were founded. They were vital to the establishment of a particular set of values in the dominant professional middle classes. These values were reflected in the novel Tom Browns Schooldays by Thomas Hughes, written in tribute to his own happy time at Rugby School. Its emphasis is on the making of gentlemen to enter one of the professions: law, medicine, the Church, the Civil Service or the colonial service. The concept of service, even if it only involved entering a profitable profession, was central to the public school ethos. A career in commerce, or mere money making as it is referred to in Tom Browns Schooldays, was not to be considered. As a result of such values, the public school system was traditional in its view of learning and deeply resistant to science and technology. Most public schools were located in the timeless countryside, away from the vulgarity of industrial cities. After 1945, when state-funded grammar schools were demonstrating equal or greater academic excellence, the public schools began to modernise themselves. During the 1970s most of them abolished beating and fagging, the system whereby new boys carried out menial tasks for senior boys, and many introduced girls into the sixth form, as a civilising influence. They made particular efforts to improve their academic and scientific quality. Traditionally boarding public schools were more popular, but since the 1970s there has been a progressive shift of balance in favour of day schools. Today only 16 per cent of pupils in private education attend boarding schools, and the number of boarders declines on average by 3 per cent each year. Demand for public school education is now so great that many schools register pupils names at birth. Eton maintains two lists, one for the children of old boys and the other for outsiders. There are three applicants for every vacancy. Several other schools have two applicants for each vacancy, but they are careful not to expand to meet demand. In the words of one academic, Schools at the top of the system have a vested interest in being elitist. They would lose that characteristic if they expanded. To some extent they pride themselves on the length of their waiting lists. This rush to private education is despite the steep rise in fees, 31 per cent between 1985 and 1988, and over 50 per cent between 1990 and 1997 when the average annual day fees were Ј5,700 and boarding fees double that figure. Sixty per cent of parents would probably send their children to fee-paying schools if they could afford to. In order to obtain a place at a public school, children must take a competitive examination, called Common Entrance. In order to pass it, most children destined for a public school education attend a preparatory (or prep) school until the age of 13. Independent schools remain politically controversial. The Conservative Party believes in the fundamental freedom of parents to choose the best education for their children. The Labour Party disagrees, arguing that in reality only the wealthier citizens have this freedom of choice. In the words of Hugh Gaitskell, the Labour leader in 1953, We really cannot go on with a system in which wealthy parents are able to buy what they and most people believe to be a better education for their children. The system is wrong and must be changed. But since then no Labour government has dared to abolish them. There can be no doubt that a better academic education can be obtained in some of the public schools. In 1993 92 of the 100 schools with the best A-level results were fee-paying. But the argument that parents will not wish to pay once state schools offer equally good education is misleading, because independent schools offer social status also. Unfortunately education depends not only on quality schools but also on the home environment. The background from which pupils come greatly affects the encouragement they receive to study. Middle-class parents are likely to be better able, and more concerned, to support their childrens study than low-income parents who themselves feel they failed at school. State-maintained schools must operate with fewer resources, and in more difficult circumstances, particularly in low-income areas. In addition, the public school system creams off many of the ablest teachers from the state sector. The public school system is socially divisive, breeding an atmosphere of elitism and leaving some outside the system feeling socially or intellectually inferior, and in some cases intimidated by the prestige attached to public schools. The system fosters a distinct culture, one based not only upon social superiority but also upon deference. As one leading journalist, Jeremy Paxman, himself an ex-public schoolboy remarked, The purpose of a public school education is to teach you to respect people you dont respect. In the words of Anthony Sampson, himself an ex-pupil of Westminster, the public school elite reinforces and perpetuates a class system whose divisions run through all British institutions, separating language, attitudes and motivations. Those who attend these schools continue to dominate the institutions at the heart of the British state, and seem likely to do so for some time to come. At the beginning of the 1990s public schools accounted for 22 out of 24 of the armys top generals, two-thirds of the Bank of Englands external directors, 33 out of 39 top English judges, and ambassadors in the 15 most important diplomatic missions abroad. Of the 200 richest people in Britain no fewer than 35 had attended Eton. Eton and Winchester continue to dominate the public school scene, and the wider world beyond. As Sampson asks, Can the products of two schools (Winchester and Eton), it might be asked, really effectively represent the other 99.5 per cent of the people in this diverse country who went to neither mediaeval foundation? The concept of service was once at the heart of the public school ethos, but it is questionable whether it still is. A senior Anglican bishop noted in 1997, A headmaster told me recently that the whole concept of service had gone. Now they all want to become merchant bankers and lawyers. There are two arguments that qualify the merit of the public schools, apart from the criticism that they are socially divisive. It is inconceivable that the very best intellectual material of the country resides solely among those able to attend such schools. If one accepts that the brightest and best pupils are in fact spread across the social spectrum, one must conclude that an elitist system of education based primarily upon wealth rather than ability must involve enormous wastage. The other serious qualification regards the public school ethos which is so rooted in tradition, authority and a narrow idea of gentlemanly professions. Even a century after it tried to turn its pupils into gentlemen, the public school culture still discourages, possibly unconsciously, its pupils from entering industry. It is no accident, Sampson comments, that most formidable industrialists in Britain come from right outside the public school system, and many from right outside Britain. Britain will be unable to harness its real intellectual potential until it can break loose from a divisive culture that should belong in the past, and can create its future elite from the nations schoolchildren as a whole. In 1996 a radical Conservative politician argued for turning public schools into centres of excellence which would admit children solely on ability, regardless of wealth or social background, with the help of government funding. It would be a way of using the best of the private sector for the nation as a whole. It is just such an idea that Labour might find attractive, if it is able to tackle the more widespread and fundamental shortcomings of the state education system. Further and higher education «P reparation for adult life» includes training in the skills required for a job. These skills can be pitched at different levels - highly job-specific and not requiring much thought in their application, or «generalisable» and applicable to different kinds of employment. Vocational courses are concerned with the teaching of job-related skills, whether specific or generalisable. They can be based in industry, and «open learning» techniques make this increasingly likely, although in the past, they have normally been taught in colleges of further education, with students given day release from work. Vocational training has not been an activity for schools. But some critics think that schools should provide it for non-academic pupils. One major initiative back in 1982, was the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative (TVEI) in which schools received money if they were able to build into the curriculum vocationally-related content ant activities - more technology, business studies, industry related work and visits, etc. But all this got lost in 1988 with the imposition of a National Curriculum was reformed, providing opportunities for vocational studies to be introduced at 14. But the real changes in vocational training were to be seen outside the schools. The curriculum in colleges of further education has been closely determined by vocational examination bodies which decide what the student should be able to do in order to receive a qualification as, for example, a plumber or a hairdresser. These qualifications were pitched at different levels - from relatively low-skilled operative to higher-skilled craft and technician. Obtaining these qualifications often required an apprenticeship, with day release in a college of further education for more theoretical study. Vocational training always has had a relatively low status in Britain. The «practical» and the «vocational» have seldom given access to university or to the prestigious and professional jobs. Further education has traditionally been characterised by part-time vocational courses for those who leave school at the age of 16 but need to acquire a skill, be that in the manual, technical or clerical field. In all, about three million students enrol each year in part-time courses at further education (FE) colleges, some released by their employers and a greater number unemployed. In addition there have always been a much smaller proportion in full-time training. In 1985 this figure was a meagre 400,000, but by 1995 this had doubled. Given Labours emphasis on improving the skills level of all school-leavers, this expansion will continue. Vocational training, most of which is conducted at the countrys 550 further education colleges is bound to be an important component. Higher education has also undergone a massive expansion. In 1985 only 573,000, 16 per cent of young people, were enrolled in full-time higher education. Ten years later the number was 1,150,000, no less than 30 per cent of their age group. This massive expansion was achieved by greatly enlarging access to undergraduate courses, but also by authorising the old polytechnics to grant their own degree awards, and also to rename themselves as universities. Thus there are today 90 universities, compared with 47 in 1990, and only seventeen in 1945. They fall into five broad categories: the medieval English foundations, the medieval Scottish ones, the nineteenth-century redbrick ones, the twentieth-century plate-glass ones, and finally the previous polytechnics. They are all private institutions, receiving direct grants from central government. Oxford and Cambridge, founded in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries respectively, are easily the most famous of Britains universities. Today Oxbridge, as the two together are known, educate less than one-twentieth of Britains total university student population. But they continue to attract many of the best brains and to mesmerise an even greater number, partly on account of their prestige, but also on account of the seductive beauty of many of their buildings and surroundings. Both universities grew gradually, as federations of independent colleges, most of which were founded in the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In both universities, however, new colleges are periodically established, for example Green College, Oxford (1979) and Robinson College, Cambridge (1977). In the nineteenth century more universities were established to respond to the greatly increased demand for educated people as a result of the Industrial Revolution and the expansion of Britains overseas empire. Many of these were sited in the industrial centres, for example Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham, Newcastle, Liverpool and Bristol. With the expansion of higher education in the 1960s plate-glass universities were established, some named after counties or regions rather than old cities, for example Sussex, Kent, East Anglia and Strathclyde. Over 50 polytechnics and similar higher education institutes acquired university status in 1992. There is also a highly successful Open University, which provides every person in Britain with the opportunity to study for a degree, without leaving their home. It is particularly designed for adults who missed the opportunity for higher education earlier in life. It conducts learning through correspondence, radio and television, and also through local study centres. University examinations are for Bachelor of Arts, or of Science (BA or BSc) on completion of the undergraduate course, and Master of Arts or of Science (MA or MSc) on completion of postgraduate work, usually a one- or two-year course involving some original research. Some students continue to complete a three-year perio of original research for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). The bachelor degree is normal classed, with about 5 per cent normally gaining First, about 30 per cent gaining an Upper Seconi or 2.1, perhaps 40 per cent gaining a Lower Second, or 2.2, and the balance getting either i Third, a Pass or failing. Approximately 15 per cei fail to complete their degree course. In addition there are a large number of specialis higher education institutions in the realm of the performing and visual arts. For example, there a four leading conservatories: the Royal Academy Music, the Royal College of Music, Trinity College of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music. There are a large number of art colleges, of whi the most famous is the Royal College of Art, where both Henry Moore and David Hockney once studied. Other colleges cater for dance, film-making and other specialist areas in arts. In spite of the high fees, Britains universities, Fl colleges and English language schools host a number of foreign students, in 1996 there were fewer than 158,000. Female undergraduates have greatly increased proportionately in recent years. In the mid-1960 they were only 28 per cent of the intake, became 41 per cent by the early 1980s, and were 51 per cent by 1996. There is still an unfortunate separation of the sexes in fields of chosen study, arising from occupational tradition and social expectations. Caring for others is still a proper career for women; building bridges, it seems, is not. Unless one believes womens brains are better geared to nursing and other forms of caring and mens to bridge-building, one must conclude that social expectations still hinder women and men from realising their potential. Students from poorer backgrounds are seriously underrepresented in higher education. Although more in social categories C, D and E are now enrolled, it is the more prosperous social categories A and B which have benefited most from university expansion. For Labour there are two issues here: equality of opportunity, and maximising all of societys intellectual potential. Ethnic minorities representation is growing: 1 3 per cent in 1996 compared with only 10.7 per cent in 1990. It is noteworthy that their university representation exceeds their proportion within the whole population, a measure of their commitment to higher education. In 1988 a new funding body, the University Funding Council, was established, with power to require universities to produce a certain number of qualified people in specific fields. It is under the UFCs watchful eye that the universities have been forced to double their student intake, and each university department is assessed on its performance and quality. The fear, of course, is that the greatly increased quantity of students that universities must now take might lead to a loss of academic quality. Expansion has led to a growing funding gap. Universities have been forced to seek sponsorship from the commercial world, wealthy patrons and also from their alumni. The Conservative Party also decided to reduce maintenance grants but to offer students loans in order to finance their studies. However, the funding gap has continued to grow and Labour shocked many who had voted for it by introducing tuition fees at 1,000 pounds per annum in 1998. Although poorer students were to be exempted it was feared that, even with student loans, up to 10 per cent of those planning to go to university would abandon the idea. One effect of the financial burden is that more students are living at home while continuing their studies: about 50 per cent at the ex-polytechnics, but only 15 per cent at the older universities. Today many university science and technology departments, for example at Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, Imperial College London, and Strathclyde, are among the best in Europe. The concern is whether they will continue to be so in the future. Academics pay has fallen so far behinc other professions and behind academic salaries elsewhere, that many of the best brains have gonthe new Labour government, which itself reflects a much wider field of life experience in Britain, will mark the beginning of significantly fuller popular participation in the controlling institutions of state. Present situation The educational system - its organization, its control, its content - is changing rapidly to meet the perceived needs of the country - the need to improve standards and to respond to a rapidly changing and competitive economy. Those changes might be summarized in the following way. First, there is much greater central control over what is taught. Second, what is taught is seen in rather traditional terms - organized in terms of subjects rather than in response to the learning needs of the pupils. Third, however, there is an attempt to be responsive to the economic needs of the country, with an emphasis upon vocational studies and training. Fourth, there is a rapid expansion of those who stay in education beyond the compulsory age, making use of the «three-track system» of «A» Level, GNVQ (General National Vocational Qualifications) and NVQ (National Vocational Qualifications). Fifth, although the content of education is centrally controlled, its «delivery» pays homage to the «market» by encouraging choice between different institutions so that funding follows popular choice (i.e. the more popular the school with parents, the more money it gets, thereby providing an incentive to schools and colleges to improve their performance. Education under Labour E ducation was the central theme of the new Labour government. It promised a huge range of improvements: high-quality education for all four-year-olds whose parents wanted it and lower pupil-teacher ratios, in particular that children up to the age of eight children would never be in classes of over 30 pupils. It also declared that all children at primary school would spend one hour each day on reading and writing, and another hour each day on numeracy, the basic skills for all employment. When Labour took office only 57 per cent of children reached national literacy targets by the time they left primary school, and only 55 per cent reached similar targets in maths. The government pledged to raise these proportions to 80 per cent and 75 per cent respectively. It also established a new central authority responsible for both qualifications and the curriculum, to ensure that these were, in the governments own words, high quality, coherent and flexible. It warned that it intended to evolve a single certificate to replace A levels and vocational qualifications, and possibly to reflect a broad range of study rather than the narrow specialism of the A-level system. Because 30 per cent of students who started A-level courses failed to acquire one, it also wanted to create a more flexible system that would allow students still to attain recognised standards of education and training on the road to A levels. However, unlike France or Germany, an increasing proportion of those taking exams at this standard were actually passing. The government also promised to improve the quality of the teaching staff, with a mandatory qualification for all newly appointed heads of schools, to improve teacher training, to establish a General Teaching Council, which would restore teacher morale and raise standards, and to introduce more effective means of removing inefficient teachers. It also promised to look at the growing problem of boys underachieving at school compared with girls. Finally, Labour asked for its record to be judged at the end of its first term in office, in 2002. Questions 1. When do the british start their education? 2. Do you agree that the british education has problems? 3. What were the lacks of British education? 4. Who can study in public schools? 5. Does the word «public» reflect the real principle of that schools? 6. What political acts became a turning point in British education? 7. What is the most well-spread opinion about the vocational courses? 8. What do you think about the quality of higher education in Britain? 9. What are the main principles of the Labour Patry (concerning education) 10. How had the role of parents in the childrens education changed? 11. How did the changing economic and social situation influence the system of education? 12. What are the most prestigeous schools in Britain? 13. Are there students from other countries in British schools and universities? 14. Is the nursary school compulsory? 15. How do you think: do the Concervative principles of education differ from that of Labour? 16. What are the aims of education in Britain today? 17. Did the level of education become higher after the reforms? 18. What is the GCSE? 19. What types of schools does the british system of education includes? 20. Would you like to study in Britain? (Give your argument for or against it).

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Education in Great Britain - Реферат

1.Education.

The British education system has much in common with that in Europe,

that :

• Full-time education is compulsory for all children in the middle teenage years. Parents are required by law to see that their children receive full-time education, at school or elsewhere, between the ages of 5 and 16 in England, Scotland and Wales 4 and 16 in Northern Ireland.
• The academic year begins at the end of summer.

Compulsory education is free charge, though parents may choose a private school and spend their money on education their children. About 93% of pupils receive free education from public funds, while the others attend independent schools financed by fees paid by parents.

• There are three stages of schooling with children, moving from primary school to secondary school. The third stage provides further and higher education, technical college of higher education and universities.

There is, however, quite a lot that distinguishes education in Britain from the way it works in other countries. The most important distinguishing features are the lack of uniformity and comparatively little central control. There are three separate government departments managing education: the Departments for Education and Employment is responsible for England and Wales alone; Scotland and Northern Ireland retain control over the education within their respective countries. None of these bodies exercises much control over the details does not prescribe a detailed program of learning, books and materials to be used, nor does it dictate the exact hours of the school day, the exact days of holidays, schools finance management and such lick. As many details possible are left to the discretion of the individual institution.

Many distinctive characteristics of British education can be ascribed at least partly, to public school tradition. The present-day level of “grass-root” independence as well as different approach to education has been greatly influenced by the philosophy that a school is its own community. The 19th century public schools educated the sons of the upper and upper-middle classes and the main aim of schooling was to prepare young men to take up positions in the higher ranks of the army, the Church, to fill top-jobs in business, the legal profession, the civil serves and politics. To meet this aim the emphasis was made on “character-building” and the development of “team spirit” rather than on academic achievement.

Such schools were (and still often are) mainly boarding establishments, so they had a deep and lasting influence on their pupils, consequently, public-school leaves for formed a closed group entry into which was difficult, the ruling elite the core of the Establishment.

The 20th century brought education and its possibilities for social advanced within everybodys reach, and new, state schools naturally tended to copy the features of the public schools. So today, in typically British fashion, learning for its own sake, rather than for any practical purpose is still been given a high value. As distinct from most other countries, a relatively stronger emphasis is on the quality of person that education produces rather than helping people to develop useful knowledge and skills. In other words, the general style of teaching is to develop understanding rather than acquiring factual knowledge and learning to apply this knowledge to specific tasks.

2.Public Schools For Whom?

About five per cent of children are educated privately in what is rather confusingly called public schools. These are the schools for the privileged. There are about 500 public schools in England and Wales most of them single-sex. About half of them are for girls.

The schools, such as Eton, Harrow, Rugby and Winchester, are famous for their ability to lay the foundation of a successful future by giving their pupils self- confidence, the right accent, a good academic background and, perhaps most important of all, the right friends and contacts. People who went to one of the public schools never call themselves school-leaves. They talk about “the old school tie” and “the old boy network”. They are just old boys or old girls. The fees are high and only very rich families can afford to pay so much. Public schools educate the ruling class of England. One such school is Gordonstoun, which the Prince of Wales, the elder son of the Queen, left in 1968. Harrow School is famous as the place where Winston Churchill was educated, as well as six other Prime Ministers of England, the poet Lord Byron, the playwright Richard Sheridan and many other prominent people.

Public schools are free from state control. They are independent. Most of them are boarding schools. The education is of a high quality; the discipline is very strict. The system of education is the same: the most able go ahead.

These schools accept pupils from preparatory schools at about 11 or 13 years of age usually on the basis of an examination, known as Common Entrance. There are three sittings of Common Entrance every year in February, June and November. Scholarships are rarely awarded on the results of Common Entrance. The fundamental requirements are very high. At 18 most public school-leaves, gain entry to universities.

3.Schooling.

Great Britain does not have a written constitution, so there are no constitutional provisions for education. The system of education is determined by the National Education Acts.

Schools in England are supported from public funds paid to the local education authorities. These local education authorities are responsible for organizing the schools in their areas.

Lets outline the basic features of public education in Britain. Firstly, there are wide variations between one part of the country and another. For most educational purposes England and Wales are treated as one unit, though the system in Wales is a little different from that of England. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own education systems.

Secondly, education in Britain mirrors the countrys social system: it is class-divided and selective. The first division is between those who pay and those who do not pay. The majority of schools in Britain are supported by public funds and the education provided is free. They are maintained schools, but there are also a considerable number of public schools. Parents have to pay fees to send their children to these schools. The fees are high. As matter of fact, only very rich families can send their children to public schools. In some parts of Britain they still keep the old system of grammar schools, which are selective. But most secondary schools in Britain, which are called comprehensive schools, are not selective you dont have to pass an exam to go there.

Another important feature of schooling in Britain is the variety of opportunities offered to schoolchildren. The English school syllabus is divided into Arts and Sciences, which determine the division of the secondary school pupils into study groups: a Science pupil will study Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Economics, Technical Drawing, Biology, geography; an Art pupil will do English Language and Literature, History, foreign languages, Music, Art, Drama. Besides these subjects they must do some general education subjects like Physical Education, Home Economics for girls, and Technical subjects for boys, General Science. Computers play an important part in education. The system of options exists in all kinds of secondary schools.

The National Curriculum, which was introduced in 1988, sets out detail the subjects that children should study and the levels of achievement they should reach by the ages of 7, 11, 14, and 16, when they are tested. Until that year headmasters and headmistresses of schools were given a great deal of freedom in deciding what subjects to teach and how to do it in their schools so that there was really no central, control at all over individual schools. The National Curriculum does not apply in Scotland, where each school decides what subjects it will teach.

After the age of 16 a growing number of school students are staying on at school, some until 18 or 19, the age of entry into higher education in universities, Polytechnics or colleges. Schools in Britain provide careers guidance. A specially trained person called careers advisor or careers officer helps school students to decide what job they want to do and how they can achieve it.

British university courses are rather short, generally lasting for 3 years. The cost of education depends on the college or university and special which one chooses.

4.Education in Britain.

classschoolagenursery school playgroup or kindergarten3

4reception class

year 1

infant school5

6year 2

year 3

year 4

year 5

year 6

primary school

junior school7

8

9

10

11year 7

year 8

year 9

year 10

year 11

secondary school12

13

14

15

16year 12

year 13sixth form college 17

18first year (fresher)

second year

third/final year

University or Polytechnic19

20

21postgraduateUniversity23

www.studsell.com

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