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THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF THE UNITED KINGDOM



The four lands that make up the United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) have different histories and distinctive culture. The UK educational systems are similar in general structure, but cultural differences have influenced their organization, as well as attitudes, standards, and values.

Education is divided into three stages - primary education, secondary education, and further and higher education. Full-time education is compulsory between the ages of 5 and 16. A very high proportion of young people continue in full-time education, or part-time education and training, until the age of 18. Education during the primary and secondary stages is general rather than vocational.

Primary education takes place in infant schools (pupils aged from 5 to 7 years) and junior schools (from 8 to 11 years). Secondary schools are usually much larger than primary schools and most children - over 80 per cent - go to a comprehensive school at the age of 11. These schools are not selective - you don't have to pass an exam to go there.

At the age of 14 or 15, in the third or fourth form of secondary school, pupils begin to choose their exam subjects. At sixteen pupils take the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE). It replaced two previous examinations: the Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE), which indicated satisfactory completion of secondary education, and the General Certificate of Education (GCE) which was for higher academic achievers.

Further Education

Many people decide to leave school at the age of sixteen and go to a Further Education (FE) College. Here most of the courses are linked to some kind of practical vocational training, for example in engineering, typing, cooking or hairdressing. Full-time courses are provided in universities, polytechnics, Scottish central institutions, colleges of higher (HE) and further (FE) education, and technical, art and agricultural colleges.

Today there are over fifty universities in Britain, compared with only seventeen in 1945. They fall into four broad categories: the ancient English foundations, the ancient Scottish ones, the 'redbrick' universities, and the 'plate-glass' ones. 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 tenth of Britain's total university student population. But they continue to attract many of the best brains.

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 regret missed opportunities earlier. It conducts learning through correspondence, radio and television, and also through local study centers.

Ex I. Remember synonyms to these words:

1) to teach - to instruct - to coach - to train - to educate;

2) teacher - instructor - tutor - coach - trainer;

3) to enjoy - to take pleasure in - to take delight in - to derive pleasure from - to like-to fancy;

4) make up - to collect - to get together - to constitute - to form - to compose;

5) to create - to originate - to bring into being - to call into existence - to make.

Ex II. Match the word with the corresponding definition:

1) compulsory a) training that teaches you the skills you need to do a

particular job;

2) vocational b) a system of education in which pupils of different abilities

go to the same school or are taught in the same class;

3) comprehensive c) something that is compulsory must be done because it is the

law or because someone in authority orders you to;

4) curriculum d) an official organization or a local government department

which controls public affairs, provides public services;

5) background e) an official plan that is intended to help people in some way;

6) scheme f) the events in the past that explain why something has

happened in the way that it has;

7) to site g) to persuade someone to do something;

8) to convince h) to make a judgment about a person or situation after

thinking carefully about it;

9) to assess i) be placed or built in a particular place;

10) authority j) the subjects that are taught by a school, college etc. or the

things that are studied in a particular subject.

Ex III. Find in the text the English for:

початкова освіта; широкий вибір предметів; обов'язкова освіта; підвищувати освітній рівень; підтримувати стару систему граматичних шкіл; реагувати на потреби та інтереси своїх учнів; вища освіта; підготовка до тестів; забезпечувати школу грошима, книжками і т. п.; оцінювати класну та домашню роботу учнів; професійне навчання; обдаровані діти; най здібніші діти; трирічний курс навчання; проводити навчання поштою (через листування).







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