Education in UK

Overall responsibility for education in England rests with the secretary of state for education, who is accountable to parliament and responsible for the Department of Education and Science. Primary and Secondary education are a local responsibility. A few schools are run by voluntary bodies, mostly religious. There is also a small private sector.

Primary is free and compulsory from age 5 to 11. Local Education Authorities provide secondary education, which is organized in various ways for children aged 11 to 19.It is free and compulsory to age 16. Out of the central and local tax revenues the State finances primary and secondary education. Teachers are employed by the LEAs and are paid on an agreed national scale.

In most parts of the United Kingdom, secondary schools are open to pupils of all abilities. Normally even past the age of 16 pupils stay to earn a certificate or take public examinations that will qualify them for higher education. In Northern Ireland in some scattered LEAs in Great Britain, pupils take an intelligence examination at age 11, on the basis of which they bare assigned to grammar schools, which prepare them for higher education; or secondary modern schools, which prepare them for jobs that do not require higher education. The secretary of state has the duty to establish national curriculum applicable to all state schools. Individual schools control their own management and finances. Schools are required to maintain open enrollment.

Alongside the state sector, a small number of private schools, often called “public schools” provide education for about one-twentieth of children. There has been an argument that private schools divert gifted children and teachers and scarce financial resources from state schools and they perpetuate economic and social divisions. The arguments focus on their high quality, beneficial effects of competition, and parent’s freedom of choice.

Universities have been independent and self-governing; however, they have close links with the central government. Students do not have a right to a place at a university; they are carefully selected by examination performance. Most students receive state-funded loans to cover living expenses and also state-funded grants related to their parent’s income to cover up their tuition fees. Universities also derive income from foreign students and from various private-sector sources. The Open University- a unique innovation I n higher education- is a degree-granting institution that provides courses of study for adults through television, radio and local study programs.