Schools in Great Britain

All children must go to school from 5 to 16. Small children may attend Nursery Schools fro 3 to 5. Primary school education is offered in Primary schools from 5 to 11. Secondary education can be provided in Comprehensive Schools, Grammar Schools. There are number of private schools in Great Britain, many of them enyoing a high reputation both in teaching standards and character education. The best known are "Public Schools" (Eaton Harrow). There is no national curriculum in Britain. Schools have freedom in what and how to teach. School - leaving certificates are very important for getting good jobs and for studying at a university. The A level exam taken at 18, decides whether you will be accepted by a university. In the morning school begins at 8.50. Pupils call teachers either "sir" or simply "Mr... There are usually special rooms for each subject. Pupils wear their uniforms. At the secondary school pupils start in the first form with about 12 subjects, some of which are compulsory, some free. At the age of 16 they only take between 5 and 10 subjects for GCSE exams (General Certificate of Secondery Education), after which they may leave school. Those who stay for two more years study only 3 subjects for the A-levels, which are their kind of "matura". School usually lasts until 4 p.m. every day (except Saturday). There is much cooperation between parents, teachers and pupils. During the school year there are no examinations but at the end of every year every pupil has to sit exams for a whole week or longer. At the end of the year there is so called Speech Day which includes prize-giving. The English School system has been constantly changing over the past few years. Schools in Slovakia

It is said that our system education is very good and can be compared to educational systems of many highly developed countries in the world. Of course there are some shortages today due to the latest changes in our society and also relationship beween teachers and students is not always O. K. We are proud of our system of pre-school education which is provided for parents having children of 6 months to 6 years of age. If both parents go out to work they can leave their children in crecnes or kindergartens during their working hours. They have to pay for these facilities but public kindergaren are still cheaper than private ones. Compulsory eucation in our country is from 6 to 16 years of age and is realized in primary schools.