THE BRITISH EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

The aim of education system in general is to develop to the full the talents of both children and adults for their own benefit and that of society as a whole. At is a large-scale investment in the future.

The educational system of Great Britain has developed for over a hundred years. At is a complicated system with wide variations between one part of the country and another. Three partners are responsible for the education service: the central government – the Department of Education and Science (DES), Local Education Authorities (LEAS), and the schools themselves.

The Department of Education and Science is concerned with the formation of national policies for education. It is responsible for the maintenance of minimum national standard of education.

Local Education Authorities are charged with the provision and day-to-day running of the schools and colleges in their areas and the recruitment and payment of the teachers who work in them. They are responsible for the provision of buildings, materials and equipment. However, the choice of textbooks and timetable are usually left to the headmaster. The content and method of teaching is decided by the individual teacher.

Until recently planning and organization were not controlled by central government. In 1988, however, the National Curriculum was introduced, which means that there is now greater government control over what is taught in schools.

Together with the National Curriculum, a programme of Records of Achievements was introduced. This programme contains a system of new tests for pupils at the ages of 7, 11, 13 and 16. The aim of these tests is to discover any schools or areas which are not teaching to a high enough standard. But many believe that these tests are unfair because they reflect differences in home background rather than in ability.

Education in Britain mirrors the country’s social system: it is class-divided and selective. The first division is between those who pay and those who do not pay. The majority of schools in Britain are supported by public funds and the education provided is free. As a matter of fact, only very rich families can send children to public schools, that’s why 93 per cent of children go to state schools. State schools are almost all day schools, holding classes between Monday and Fridays. The school year normally begins in early September and continues into the following July. The year is divided into three terms of about 13 weeks each. Compulsory education begins at the age of 5 in England, Wales and Scotland, and 4 in Northern Ireland. All pupils must stay at school until the age of 16. Education within the state school system comprises either two tiers (stages) – primary (aged 5-8), and secondary (aged 8-14), or three tiers – first schools, middle schools and upper schools (aged 14-18).

After the age of 11, most children go to comprehensive schools. The word “comprehensive” expresses the idea that the schools in question take all the children in a given area, without selection. In some areas children moving from state primary to secondary are still selected for certain types of schools according to their current level of academic attainment. They are grammar and secondary modern schools.

Grammar schools provide a mainly academic education for the 11 to 18 age group. Secondary modern schools offer a more general education with a practical bias up to the minimum school-leaving age of 16.

The principal examinations taken by secondary school pupils at the age are those leading to the General Certificate of Secondary Education, which aims to assess pupil’s ability to apply their knowledge to solving practical problems.

The chief examinations at the age of 18 lead to the General Certificate of Education Advanced Level (GCE A-level). Good A-level results in at least two subjects are necessary to get a place at a University. However good marks are not enough, universities choose their students after interviews.

After three years of study a university graduate will leave with the Degree of Bachelor. Later he may continue to take a Master’s Degree and then a Doctor’s Degree. Research is an important feature of University work.

SOME INTERESTING FACTS.

DID YOU KNOW?

1. 10% of the world’s population speak English as their mother tongue (Chinese 21%, Spanish 6%, Russian 6%, Malay 4%, Hindi 4%, Japanese 3%, Arabic 3%, Portuguese 3%, French 2%, German 2%)

2. Rains of many kinds of living creatures have actually been reported from earliest times and all over the world. On 28th May 1881, during a thunderstorm on the outskirts of Worcester, England, tons of periwinkles and small hermit crabs fell on Cromer Gardens Road and the surrounding fields.

3. The alarm clock was not invented by the Marquis de Sade, as some suspect, but rather by a man named Levi Hutchins of Concord, New Hampshire, in 1787. Perversity, though, characterized his invention from the beginning. The alarm on his clock could ring only at 4 am. Rumor has it that Hutchins was murdered by his wife at 4:05 am on a very dark and deeply cold New England morning.

4. A man named Sir Henry Wyat was sentenced to the Tower of London, at a time when prisoners generally starved to death. Sir Henry’s kitty-cat seemed to understand the situation because she snuck into the Tower bringing him a freshly-killed pigeon every day. When the king heard of this, he must have felt sad for the kitty, because he immediately set Sir Henry free.

5. Heathrow Airport handles more international passengers than any other airport in the world and offers flights to many international destinations including 33 flights to Paris and 23 flights to New York each day. The most popular country for flights from Heathrow is the United States of America. The busiest routes are New York, Paris, Amsterdam and Dublin.

 

SUBURBAN LIFE

This is how house agents describe a semi-detached house in a language of their own: “For sale. Compact semi-detached residence in select suburb. Three bed., two receipt., kitchen and bathroom, garage space, nice garden”.

A residence is here merely a house. A compact residence makes the best of the fact that it is a very small house. There is, of course, no central heating, or it would have been advertised as a “luxury residence”. “Semi-detached” makes it sound loose and unstable, but, in fact, it means that it is joined as a twin to a similar house.

Besides, the “nice garden” is mostly at the back and is entirely surrounded by nice gardens of other compact residences. There is a small gap at the side of your house, between it and the next pair of Siamese twins. Your half of this gap may be wide enough to provide standing-room for a car. That is what the house agent means by “garage space”.

In the suburbs of Britain’s towns there must be several million compact residences with three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs and two rooms and a kitchen downstairs. There live the large suburban nation who form the tidal wave of passengers surging by train and bus to the offices and shops in the centre of the towns and ebbing away to the suburbs at night. They know that travelling in the rush-hours is horrible, but they would rather do that than bring up their children in a flat ten or twelve floors up in the middle of the city.

Living in a suburb involves certain rules to conform to. Gardening, for instance. Your back-garden may be a jungle of weeds, but you are expected to look after the patch in the front. Ideally, it should be fall of bright colours. Ifs all a matter of how things look to passersby in the street. And it is not done to start being very sociable the moment you move in. There’s a convention that you do not start a conversation over the fence when your neighbour appears in his back-garden. You usually can’t fail to see him but you must ignore him except fora “good afternoon”. Some people even maintain the fiction that anyone in his back-garden is, for social purposes, invisible.

 

CANALS

Canals arc very useful. Ships and boats in the sea or on rivers can carry heavy things a long way. They are slow, but they use very little power. In the 18th century the industrial revolution began in Britain. People wanted to carry coal, iron and other heavy materials. Sometimes boats travelled along large rivers like the Thames or the Mersey, but often there was no river. The first canals joined two rivers. Boats from one river travelled along the canal to the other river.

In the late 18^th century people built canals all over Britain. Canal boats, called barges, did not have sails or motors. Barges were pulled by horses. They walked along a path beside the canal and pulled the barges.

In the 19^th century people started to build railways. The new railways carried heavy things more quickly than the old canals. By the middle of the 20^th century most of the canals were empty. No one wanted to use them. Then people began to use the canals for holidays. They bought old canal barges. They cleaned and repaired them. Then they built kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms and sitting rooms inside the old barges.

Today, canal holidays are very popular. Some people like to use the old barges but others prefer modern holiday boats. A canal holiday is quiet and relaxing because you escape from the stress and traffic of the roads. On a canal holiday you can see a different side of Britain.

 

SOME NATIONAL TRAITS

Some of the British national traits are resulting from the fact that Great Britain is an island. The British display a very wide toleration of individual differences among themselves, and even among others, sometimes it seems as a willingness to encourage individual eccentricities. It is part of Englishman’s code not to intrude upon his neighbours and their way of doing things.

The British are really conservative, they love familiar things in familiar places. On a national scale their conservatism may be illustrated by the attitude to the monarchy which is held in affection by nearly all English people. Local corporations, universities, schools and societies have their own private traditions.

The English countryside is many things to many people. Every Englishman is a countryman at heart. As he looks out of the window of his flat over the vast desert of brick and stone, he has in his mind a vivid picture of the day when he will live in a cottage with roses round the porch and a garden with beds of flowers. The village is a symbol of “roots” and stability to many people.

It was the British who started the fashion for seaside holidays. The coast is the most popular place of English people for their annual holiday.

Most people in Britain work a 5-day week, from Monday to Friday. Schools, colleges, universities are also closed on Saturdays and Sundays. Everyone looks forward to the weekend and when Friday comes along, as people leave work they say to each other: “Have a nice weekend”. Then on Monday morning they ask: “did you have a nice weekend?”

Saturday morning is a very busy time for shopping, on Saturday afternoon the most important sporting events of the week take place – football, rugby, horse-racing and other sports. Some people go and watch, others sit and watch the sports programmes on TV. Saturday evening is the favourite time for parties, dances, going to the pictures, the theatre, in fact for “going-out” generally.

Sunday is the day when most people are engaged in some fairly light activity such as gardening or visit to a pub – either a walk to the local pub, or often nowadays a drive to a more pleasant country pub. Sunday has always been a favourite day for inviting people – friends, relations, colleagues – to afternoon tea, and there are no signs that custom is losing popularity nowadays.

APPENDIX 3

GTAMMAR PRACTICE

TENSES

1.1. THE VERB “TO BE ”

THE VERB “TO BE ” IN THE PRESENT SIMPLE TENSE

POSITIVE FORM	NEGATIVE FORM	QUESTIONS
I am  (I'm )	I am not ( I'm not )	Am I?
You are (you're )	You are not (you aren't )	Are you?
He is ( he's )	He is not ( he isn't )	Is he?
She is ( she's )	She is not ( she isn't )	Is she?
It is ( it's )	It is not (it isn't )	Is it?
We are ( we're )	We are not (we aren't )	Are we?
You are (you're )	You are not (you aren't )	Are you?
They are ( they're )	They are not (they aren't )	Are they?

 

Put in am, is or are.

1. Where ... your brother?

2. How old ... you?

3. What ... your aunt’s name?

4. I ... glad to see you.

5. The dog ... in your garden.

6. Tom’s parents ... travel agents.

7. –... your father a manager? – No, he ... .

8. John ... (not) a student, he ... a doctor.

9. That book ... (not) very interesting. Take this one.

10. The best seats ... 10 $.

11. What ... your job?

12. How far .. the bank from here?

13. ... there a sports centre in your town?

 

Put in am, is or are.

1. The sky is very blue today.

2. I ...  not tired.

3. This case ...  not heavy.

4. These shelves ... very heavy.

5. The child ...  ill.

6. Look! This ...  Maggie!

7. I ...  cold. Can you switch on the heating, please?

8. The castle ...  one thousand years old.

9. My brother and I ...  good tennis players.

10.  Amy ...  at home but her parent’s ... in church.

11.  I ...  a student.

12.  My sister ...  an engineer.

 

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