Education in UK

Some people say that school days are the best days of your life Well, if they're not the best, they are certainly very important Full time education in the UK is compulsory between the ages of five and sixteen About 93% of pupils in the UK receive free education The other 7% attend private schools Children attend Primary school from the ages of five to eleven There are about twenty-five to twenty-seven children in each class One of its aims is to teach children to read well and to handle numbers Schools usually devote an hour to literacy and an hour to numeracy every day In the UK, there's a computer in every Primary school In fact, the average is sixteen per school. In Secondary schools that figure rises to over a hundred. A lot of this equipment is bought with money that schools and parents collect through special events and sponsorship Children go to Secondary school when they're eleven They usually have to wear a school uniform This may be a shirt and tie and a special jacket called a blazer But it is often simply a sweatshirt and trousers in a particular colour Most school days start at about a quarter to nine and finish around three o'clock Many students stay for lunch and either take sandwiches or have a school dinner Except for Scotland; state schools in Britain follow a National Curriculum The emphasis is on the three core subjects: English, Mathematics and Science There're National tests of these subjects for all 14 year olds After their fourteen, students also study subjects such as Information and Communication Technology, Design and Technology and a modern foreign languge After their sixteen , students take GCSE exams Around 70% of students then continue to further education specialising in three or four subjects They may take AS level exams after a year and then at eighteen they take A or advanced level examinations Students can choose any course at any university but they have to get the right qualifications to be accepted Between school and university, some people take a gap year a year out of education for work experience or to travel One in three students goes onto higher education either to university or to do vocational training in subjects such as engineering or travel and tourism Qualifications are increasingly important but going to university is expensive Parents have to pay for each year's tuition and provide living expenses for their children Many parents can't afford this, so students have to take out loans Well-known traditional universities like Oxford and Cambridge are among the oldest in the world And most large towns and cities have at least one university The majority of universities teach by lectures and seminars Students work hard but they play hard too. Life at university is fun In their first year, students often live in a room at the university After that, they find a flat in town There are lots of societies to join and sports to play And... at the end of their courses students pass their final exams and graduate