Education in GB and Lithuania
Education is compulsory in our country. Children start school at the age of seven. They can stay at school for twelve years but some of them leave school at the end of the tenth form. These pupils usually go to vocational junior colleges where they can get both secondary education and the qualification. Education in Great Britain is compulsory too. British children start school at 5. They go to the primary school, which has two divisions: the infant school (from 5 to 8) and junior school. From 11 to 16 British children go to a secondary school. At the age of 16 schoolchildren may either leave the school or remain two years longer to prepare for university or college entrance. Education is free; everybody can go to a university or any higher school after finishing secondary school. In Lithuania children go to school five days a week. The school year begins September and ends in the middle of June.
Education in Lithuania has been centralized for a long time, but now almost all schools have their own education system, but all systems don_t differ from each other very much: children study almost the same subjects in all schools. Schoolchildren can transfer freely from one school to another. At that time in Great Britain the education system has been decentralized for a long time and the school curriculum, the organization of lessons, and other things vary from school to school. There are two types of secondary schools: grammar school – giving education up to the age of 18, preparing pupils for university entrance and secondary modern school, which gave general education and some practical training up to the age of 15. After a secondary school, a vocational junior college or a manual training school, children can take entrance exams and enter the university.