Abrief introduction to different types of education system

1             Introduction

Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, be­liefs, and habits. Educational methods include storytelling, discussion, teaching, training, and directed research. Education frequently takes place under the guidance of educators, but learners may also edu­cate themselves. Education can take place in formal or informal settings and any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts may be considered educational.

Education system is a combination of educational institutions and educational norms, unity, which is composed of educational institutions system and educational norms system. While the term education system is widely and frequently used in news media and public discourse, it may be difficult to determine precisely what the term is referring to when it is used without qualification, specific examples, or additional explanation.

Usually, the term education system generally refers to public schooling, not private schooling, and more commonly to kindergarten through high school programs. Schools or school districts are typically the smallest recognized form of education system and countries are the largest. Simply put, an education system comprises everything that goes into educating public-school students in the country, state, or community levels:

*              Laws, policies, and regulations;

*              Public funding, resource allocations, and procedures for determining funding levels;

*              State and district administrative offices, school facilities, and transportation vehicles;

*              Human resources, staffing, contracts, compensation, and employee benefits;

And, of course, countless other contributing elements.

Like the teaching profession, education systems are, by nature, extremely complex and multifaceted, and the challenges entailed in reforming or improving them can be similarly complex and multifaceted. Even reforms that appear to be straightforward, simple, or easily achieved may, in practice, require complicated state-policy changes, union-contract negotiations, school-schedule modifications, or countless other conditions.

2             Various types of education system

The education is different from country to country. In this section, we give some examples in different country, for example, in Russia, in the United States, in Australia, in India, and so on.

2.1           Education in Russia

Education in Russia is provided predominantly by the state and is regulated by the Ministry of Education and Science. Regional authorities regulate education within their jurisdictions within the prevailing framework of federal laws.

Before 1990 the course of school training in Soviet Union was 10 years, but at the end of 1990 the 11- year course had been officially entered. Education in state-owned secondary schools is free; first tertiary

Institute of Mathematics and Information Science, North-Eastern Federal University, Russia (university level) education is free with reservations: a substantial number of students are enrolled for full pay. Male and female students have equal shares in all stages of education, except tertiary education where women lead with 57%.

In 2004 state spending for education amounted to 3.6% of GDP, or 13% of consolidated state budget. In 2011, the spending on education amounted to 20 billion. Private institutions account for 1% of pre­school enrollment, 0.5% of elementary school enrollment and 17% of university-level students.

The literacy rate in Russia, according to a 2015 estimate by the Central Intelligence Agency, is 99.7% (99.7% men, 99.6% women). According to a 2012 OECD estimate, 53% of Russia’s adults (25 to 64-year- old) has attained a tertiary education, giving Russia the highest attainment of college-level education in the world; the OECD average is 33%. 47.7% have completed secondary education (the full 11-year course); 26.5% have completed middle school (8 years) and 8.1% have elementary education (at least 5 years). Highest rates of tertiary education, 24.7% are recorded among women aged 35-39 years (compared to 19.5% for men of the same age bracket).

In 2014, the Pearson/Economist Intelligence Unit rated Russia’s education as 8th best in Europe and 13th best in the world; Russia’s educational attainment was rated as the 21st highest in the world and the students’ cognitive skills as the 9th highest. In 2015, OECD ranked Russian students’ mathematics and science skills as the 34th best in the world, between Sweden and Iceland. In 2016 the US company Bloomberg rated Russia’s higher education as the third best in the world.

2.2           Education in the United States

Education in the United States is provided by public schools and private schools.

Public education is universally required from kindergarten through 12th grade (often abbreviated K-12), and is available at state colleges and universities for all students. Public school curricula, budgets, and policies for K-12 schooling are set through locally elected school boards, who have jurisdiction over individual school districts. State governments set overall educational standards, often mandate standard­ized tests for K-12 public school systems, and supervise, usually through a board of regents, state colleges and universities. Funding comes from the state, local, and federal government.

Private schools are generally free to determine their own curriculum and staffing policies, with vol­untary accreditation available through independent regional accreditation authorities. About 87% of school-age children attend public schools, about 10% attend private schools, and roughly 3% are home- schooled.

Education is compulsory over an age range starting between five and eight and ending somewhere between ages sixteen and eighteen, depending on the state. This requirement can be satisfied in public schools, state-certified private schools, or an approved home school program. In most schools, education is divided into three levels: elementary school, middle or junior high school, and high school. Children are usually divided by age groups into grades, ranging from kindergarten and first grade for the youngest children, up to twelfth grade as the final year of high school.

Note that, the United States spends more per student on education than any other country.

2.3           Education in Australia

Children from age 0 to 6, very young and pre-school children are taken care of in nurseries (for babies and very young children), in kindergartens (from age three to six) and pre-school classes (from age five). Very young children (on average from age two) are also looked after in very small groups by day parents, especially in small towns and rural areas.

Schooling is compulsory for nine years in Austria (from age six to 15, first to ninth grade). The first four years of compulsory education are completed in primary schools; from age ten children can attend either a junior high school or secondary school, or in certain provinces, e.g. Vienna, a ’new middle school’ (educational experiment) or the lower grades of a higher general secondary school. The ninth school year (age 14-15) can be completed at a polytechnical school or in other types of school.

The university and college education. The school-leaving examination is the prerequisite for higher education. Qualified school-leavers from intermediate vocational schools or qualified apprentices can pre­pare for university entrance by way of the vocational qualifying examination. Qualified school-leavers from junior secondary schools or pupils who have dropped out can do so by way of the study entitlement examination.

There are also many kinds forms of education in Australia, for example, Special education for disabled children or children with special educational needs; Intermediate vocational schools, higher vocational schools and higher general secondary school and grammar school.

2.4           Education in India

Education in India is provided by the public sector as well as the private sector, with control and funding coming from three levels: central, state, and local. Under various articles of the Indian Constitu­tion, free and compulsory education is provided as a fundamental right to children between the ages of 6 and 14. The ratio of public schools to private schools in India is 7:5.

At the primary and secondary level, India has a large private school system complementing the government run schools, with 29% of students receiving private education in the 6 to 14 age group. Certain post-secondary technical schools are also private. The private education market in India had a revenue of US$ 450 million in 2008.

It is important to clarify that while there are private schools in India, they are highly regulated in terms of what they can teach, in what form they can operate (must be a non-profit to run any accredited educational institution) and all other aspects of operation. Hence, the differentiation of government schools and private schools can be misguiding.

India's improved education system is often cited as one of the main contributors to its economic development. Much of the progress, especially in higher education and scientific research, has been credited to various public institutions. While enrolment in higher education has increased steadily over the past decade, reaching a Gross Enrolment Ratio of 24% in 2013, there still remains a significant distance to catch up with tertiary education enrolment levels of developed nations.

3             Education system in China

Education in China is a state-run system of public education run by the Ministry of Education. All citizens must attend school for at least nine years, known as the nine-year compulsory education, which the government funds. It includes six years of primary education, starting at age six or seven, and three years of junior secondary education (middle school) for ages 12 to 15. Some provinces may have five years of primary school but four years for middle school. After middle school, there are three years of high school, which then completes the secondary education.

To provide for its population, China has a vast and varied school system. There are preschools, kinder­gartens, schools for the deaf and blind, key schools (private, cultural and vocational schools, regular secondary schools, secondary teachers' schools, secondary technical schools, and secondary profession­al schools), and various institutions of higher learning (consisting of regular colleges and universities, professional colleges, and short-term vocational universities).

The following table gives the educational stages in China.

Preschool education, which began at age three. Preschool facilities were to be established in build­ings made available by public enterprises, production teams, municipal authorities, local groups, and families. The government announced that it depended on individual organizations to sponsor their own preschool education and that preschool education was to become a part of the welfare services of various government organizations, institutes, and state- and collectively operated enterprises. Costs for preschool education varied according to services rendered. Officials also called for more preschool teachers with more appropriate training.

Children usually entered primary school at seven years of age for six days a week. The two-semester school year consisted of 9.5 months, and began on September 1 and March 1, with a summer vacation in July and August and a winter vacation in January and February. Urban primary schools typically divided the school week into twenty-four to twenty-seven classes of forty-five minutes each, but in the rural areas,the norm was half-day schooling, more flexible schedules, and itinerant teachers. Most primary schools had a five-year course, except in such cities as Beijing and Shanghai, and later other major cities, which had reintroduced six-year primary schools and accepted children at six and one-half years rather than seven.

The primary-school curriculum consisted of Chinese, mathematics, physical education, music, drawing, and elementary instruction in nature, history, and geography, combined with practical work experiences around the school compound. A general knowledge of politics and moral training, which stressed love of the motherland, love of the party, and love of the people, was another part of the curriculum. A foreign language, often English, is introduced in about the third grade. Chinese and mathematics accounted for about 60 percent of the scheduled class time; natural science and social science accounted for about 8 percent. Putonghua (common spoken language) was taught in regular schools and pinyin romanization in lower grades and kindergarten. The Ministry of Education required that all primary schools offer courses on morality and ethics. Beginning in the fourth grade, students usually had to perform productive labor two weeks per semester to relate classwork with production experience in workshops or on farms and relate it to academic study. Most schools had after-hour activities at least one day per week to involve students in recreation and community service.

Junior secondary education is more commonly known as (junior) middle school education, it consists the last three years of nine years compulsory education. Students who live in rural areas are often boarded into townships to receive their education. Zhongkao, the Senior High School Entrance Examination, is the academic examination held annually in China to distinguish junior graduates. Generally speaking, students will be tested in Chinese, Mathematics, English, Physics, Chemistry, Political Science and PE. However, the scoring system may change, and vary between different areas.

Senior secondary education often refers to three years high school (or called senior middle school) education, as from grade 10 to grade 12. Normally, students who have finished six years of primary edu­cation will continue three more years of academic study in middle schools as regulated by the Compulsory education law at the age of twelve. This, however, is not compulsory for senior secondary education, where junior graduates may choose to continue a three-year academic education in academic high schools, which will eventually lead to university, or to switch to a vocational course in vocational high schools.

After senior education, students can continue the high education. National examinations to select stu­dents for higher education (and positions of leadership) were an important part of China’s culture, and, traditionally, entrance to a higher education institution is considered prestigious. Although the exami­nation system for admission to colleges and universities has undergone many changes since the Cultural Revolution, it remains the basis for recruiting academically able students. When higher education institu­tions were reopened in early 1970s, candidates for entrance examinations had to be senior-middle-school graduates or the equivalent, generally below twenty-six years of age. Work experience requirements were eliminated, but workers and staff members needed permission from their enterprises to take the exami­nations. In addition to the written examination, university applicants had to pass a physical examination and a political screening.