How is Education in the UK?

Educative issues are maintained and regularised by the different governments of the four countries in the UK. Anyway, many features of their educative systems are shared by all of them.

The education system is dividesd into nursery, primary education, secundary education and tertiary education, refering to the following ages; 3-4, 4-11, 11-18 and more than 18 years.

Education is compulsory for children between 5 and 16 but a new law passed in 2008 will raise the leaving age for compulsory education to 18 after 2015. 

The State provide schooling for all citizens but independent schooling is quite traditional and parents normally choose to educate their children in private schools according to their religious beliefs and social ideas.

Higher education is offered through postgraduate degrees, masters degrees and doctorates. This non compulsory educations is paid by both the state and students. The approximate cost for each of the courses is £9.000 per year.

 Nowadays more than one in four of the entire population of the UK is now in education or training, according to figures from the government.

There are about 14.5 million people in nursery, school, post-16 courses, vocational training and university.

A tough jobs market has seen record numbers staying in education. Anyway, a criticising wave against the education system has appeared as a consecuence of the bad results obtained by children in compulsory education.