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Education in Great Britain,What is education trying to achieve? For the individual? For the society?,Purpose of Education,In Great Britain, the purpose of school is to provide children with literacy and other basic skills, as well as to “socialise” them to teach them how to be good citizens, to participate in the community, and to contribute to the economic prosperity of an advanced industrial economy. (pg 102-103),Controversy,How do you measure success? Should education be “equal” for everyone? Britain is a society where social classes are still very important. There is a big distinction between working class and middle class people.,Social Class,About half of British would describe themselves as working-class, and half would be middle-class. They are divided by employment (manual workers vs. office workers), cultural differences (newspapers, entertainment), the way they speak (accents are stronger in the working-class), and education,Social Class,Most Britons go to the same kind of school free public education, but about 7% attend private schools. These schools offer a good education, as well as connections. About half of Oxford and Cambridge University students come from private schools. About 90% of the government senior ministers were graduates from “Oxbridge”. A difference in British class systems as compared with China or America is that there is still an aristocracy. There are people with titles such as barons and dukes.,Private Schools -Eton and Winchester are the most famous boy schools in England,Pictures from Eton boys school,Oxford and Cambridge are the most famous universities in the U.K.,Oxford University - Going to the “right schools” is still the best way to guarantee a successful career and future.,History of Education,Historically, education was voluntary and many of the schools that were set up,were set up by churches. The church still has an influence on schooling. Daily prayers and singing hymns (songs to God) are still a regular part of school life in many schools.,History of Education,l Before 1870 only 40% of children under 10 years old went to school and only a very few children went on to higher education. The few who did go on to further education were the sons (not daughters) of the wealthy. l After 1870, the influence of the Industrial Revolution in Britain made people realize the value in having more citizens educated to help contribute to the more high-tech world that was developing. There were more industrial jobs being created, and there was less need for agricultural workers. l By 1880 the government had taken more responsibility for the education of all children and made it compulsory that children, attend school from the ages of 5 to 10. This was the first action in accommodating the need to have a (highly) educated population, if the country was to be a world economic and industrial force. l By the end of the war (1914-1918) the school-leaving age was raised to 14 years old!,A British school at the end of the 19th Century,Questions,In 1918, there was some resistance from working-class families to the raising of the school-leaving age. Why? In the 1880s what did the 10 year olds do now that they were not at school all day?,Children working in a cotton factory,Children working in a coal mine,Then Came World War II,When the Germans began dropping bombs in England, 750,000 school children were sent to the country where it would be safer. They didnt receive much education then. After the war, Britain revised its education system. This time, it would emphasize equality.,1944 Education Act this law made entry into secondary (middle) schools based on merit (ability), not status.,All children were given a right to free secondary education. All 11 year old children sat an exam, which determined whether their secondary schooling would be in a grammar school* or in a secondary modern school*. The more able students went to grammar schools and the less able students went to secondary modern schools. Grammar school students were prepared for university, while the secondary modern students were prepared for trades (such as work as a plumber, electrician, and building worker).,What were the results of these changes? Were the working class children doing as well as the upper class children?,The first attempt at equal education failed. Because education was based on examinations, the middle class students still performed better and the working class students left school at an earlier age. Middle class students had more free time and better access to help than working class students. They also valued education more.,In the 1960s, comprehensive schools were introduced, ending the division between grammar schools and vocational schools. Entrance exams were abolished for 11 year olds.,The Great Education Debate,In 1976, the Labour party started a debate about national standards and styles of teaching. Were the schools producing children who had enough literacy and numeracy skills to be able to get jobs in the British workplace? Was the education system too liberal and too focused on social development of the student? Did individual schools have too much power to decide what they taught?,A National Curriculum,In 1989 the government thought that there needed to be a national curriculum. A national curriculum is a list of things that all students in the country must study. The subjects were English, mathematics, science, religious education*, history, geography, technology, music, art, physical education and a modern foreign language.,Competition reintroduced,The National Curriculum reintroduced competition between schools; and schools that are doing well attracted more funding (money) and therefore attracted better students the opposite is also true (vice versa). Was this fair?,Current Education in the U.K.,Education in the UK is compulsory from 5 to 16 years of age. This education is free. Results of school performance are published in national newspapers. Students usually go to the school closest to their house. 5 to 11 year old students go to co-educational primary school. 11 to 19 year old students go to comprehensive secondary schools or, more rarely, to grammar schools (if they pass a test at 11 years old). Grammar school is more common in Northern Ireland than the rest of the U.K.,Education Today,16 years old students sit a national exam called the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE). The GCSE exams determine whether the student can go on to study for university entrance, or study for a vocation. They can also leave school and get a job. Students who want to go to university must study for 2 more years and then sit for their A-level (advanced) exams. Students choose 3 or 4 subjects that they like and which are appropriate to their choice of further study or career, and they hope that they get high enough marks to get into university. Every 16 and 17 year old student is guaranteed a place in full-time education or training, if they want it.,Universities in the U.K.,British universities have a long history; Oxford and Cambridge in England were founded in the 12th & 13th centuries and some Scottish universities were founded in the 14th and 15th centuries.,British universities are funded by the government, and unlike the USA, there are not private universities. There has been a great increase in the number of people attending university in the last 25 years. 1980: 1 in 8, 1990: 1 in 5 and 2000: 1 in 3. University campuses now have students with a wide range of ages and nationalities, studying various subjects. For instance, in 2003/2004 there were 1,400,000 full-time students, 230,000 of whom came from overseas. The British government tries to encourage the best overseas students to study in Britain by offering scholarships. (32,000 received this sort of assistance in 2003/2004).,University of Leicester, UK,The Open University,Britains newest kind of university is the Open University. The Open University is a university that enables anyone to study at home. The students receive their lectures through TV, radio, information sent through the post and though some residential schools etc.,2007 University Ratings,1 Harvard University United States 2 University of Cambridge United Kingdom 3 University of Oxford United Kingdom 4= Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States 4= Yale University United States 6 Stanford University United States 7 California Institute of Technology United States 8 University of California, Berkeley United States 9 Imperial College London United Kingdom 10 Princeton University United States 11 University of Chicago United States 12 Columbia University United States 13 Duke University United States *14 Peking University China 15 Cornell University United States 16 Australian National University Australia 17 London School of Economics and Political. United Kingdom 18 Ecole Normale Suprieure France 19= National University of Singapore Singapore 19= University of Tokyo Japan 21 McGill University Canada 22 University of Melbourne Australia 23 Johns Hopkins University United States 24 ETH Zurich Switzerland 25 University College London (UCL) United Kingdom 26 University of Pennsylvania United States 27 University of Toronto Canada *28 Tsing Hua University China,
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