Historical Background The British government attached little importance to education until the end of 19th century

Today. Organization

 In Britain there is comparatively little central control or uniformity. For example, education is managed nit by one, but by three, separate government departments: the Department of education and Employment is responsible for England and Wales alone – Scotland and Northern Ireland have their owns departments. All they do is to ensure the availability of education, dictate and implement its overall organization and set overall learning objectives up to the end of compulsory education. Central government doesn’t prescribe a detailed programme of learning or determine what books and material should be used. It says, in broad terms, what schoolchildren should learn, but it only offers occasional advise about how how they should learn it. It does not manage an institution’s finances either, it just decided how much money to give them. In general, as many details as possible are left up to the individual institution or the Local Education Authority (LEA, a branch of local government) .

Style

Learning for its own sake, rather than for any particular practical purpose, has traditionally been given a comparatively high value in Britain. British schools and Universities have tended to give such a high priority to sport. The idea is that it helps to develop the ‘complete’ person. People with poor academic records were sometimes accepted as students because of their sporting prowess.

School life

There is no countrywide system of nursery schools. In some areas primary schools have nursery schools attached to them, but in others there is no provision of this kind. Many children do not begin full-time attendance at school until they are about five and start primary school.

Nearly all schools work a five-day week, with no half-day, and are closed on Saturdays. The day starts at or just before 9 o’clock and finishes between three and four, or a bit later for older children. The lunch break usually lasts about an hour-and-a-quarter. Parents pay for it, except for the 15% who are rated poor enough for it to be free. Other children either go home for lunch or take sandwiches. In primary schools, the children are mostly taught by a class teacher who teaches all subjects. At the ages of seven and eleven, children have to take national tests in English, mathematics and science. In secondary schools, pupils have different teaches for different subjects and are given regular homework.