ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS

The English educational system is rather complicated. Boys and girls must go to school from the age of 5 to the age of 15. About seven of ten leave schools at 17, others stay on till 16-19. The children of the rich get a far better education than the children of the poor. Besides the state system of education there are independent schools, such as, for example, large public schools, preparing pupils chiefly for universities of public services.

About 90 per cent of children attend schools. These schools are: primary or elementary schools for children up to eleven, and secondary schools for older boys and girls. There are different types of secondary schools-secondary modern school, secondary grammar school and secondary comprehensive school.

First children go to a primary or elementary school. When they are eleven years old they have to sit for an examination. According to the results of this examination they are able to go to one of the secondary schools. If they did well in the exam, they can go to a secondary grammar school. If they did less well, they go to a secondary modern school. Secondary grammar school provides a programme that leads to the University. This separation shows that the secondary schools have different programmes. Such system of education increases the inequalities between the rich and the poor because as we already stated above the children of the rich get a far better education. It is quite clear that the rich can afford to send their children to better schools, to have private teachers and instructors, i. e. to give their children a better schooling (grounding) in all the subjects. Under such conditions the results of the exams show not the abilities of a schoolchild but his or her schooling. That's why not long ago there appeared in England a new type of school -a secondary comprehensive school. This is a new non-selective type of school. It does not separate the children and provides all types of secondary education. This type of school is showing good results and is a step in progressive people fighting against any forms of privilege in education. The number of these schools is increasing. The process of reorganizing secondary grammar and modern schools into comprehensive schools is going on. There are already very few secondary grammar and modern schools left now in the country.