Public means private!
Terminology about the school system in Britain can be confusing. Schools funded by government, either directly or via local education authorities, are called state schools and education provided in this way is known as state education. This distinguishes it from private education, which comprises independent schools. The confusing bit is that some independent schools (a varying number, because the term is not exact) are known as public schools.
The possibility of confusion is especially great because in America schools organized by the government are called ‘public schools’ and the education provided by the government is called the ‘public school system’.
In Britain today, about eight per cent of children are educated outside the state system.
What do you do if you are the head of a large school in Britain? Supervise the teaching? Organize the curriculum? Make sure that good order is preserved in the school? Well, yes, that’s what you do some of the time. But these days you also spend a lot of your time flying around the world desperately trying to find teachers to come and teach in your school.
Such is the shortage of teachers in Britain that thousands of foreign teachers are recruited every year, the teachers they get are often appalled at the behaviour of pupils in British schools and they find it very hard, but they don’t mind too much because it’s only temporary and it’s good experience. In any case, they are made to feel special- the education authorities that employ them are so grateful they lay on special receptions for them and arrange for visa requirements to be relaxed.
Sometimes, this practice creates bad feeling between the government of Britain and these other countries, who accuse the British of exporting their education crisis.
Historically, stereotypical public schools:
* are for boys only, from the age of 13 onwards, most of whom attended a private ‘prep’ (preparatory) school beforehand
* take free-paying pupils (and some scholarship pupils who have won a place in a competitive entrance exam and whose parents do not pay)
* are boarding schools (the boys live there during term-time)
* make some of the senior boys ‘perfects’, which means that they have authority over other boys and have their own servants (called ‘fags’), who are appointed from amongst the youngest boys
* place great emphasis on team sports
* enforce their rules with the use of physical punishment
* are not at all luxurious or comfortable
However, this traditional image no longer fits the facts. These days, there is not a single public school in the country in which all of the above features apply, and a fairly large number of girls’ public schools for the last hundred years, and by now most public schools are mixed. Many schools admit day pupils as well as boarders, and some are day schools only; prefects no longer have so much power or have been abolished; fagging has disappeared and so has physical punishment; there is less emphasis on team sport and more on academic achievement; life for the pupils is more physically comfortable than it used to be.
Among the most famous public schools are Eton, Harrow, Rugby, and Winchester.
The three Rs
Basic literacy and numeracy is informally known in Britain as ‘the three Rs’. These are Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic.
The politicians’ children
The issue of equal opportunity is often highlighted when the British media report a story about where a prominent government politician is sending his or her children to school. If, as is frequently the case, these children are found to be attending independent schools, there are loud cries of decision and protest. Interestingly, though, the protests rarely focus on the question of inequality. Indeed, they are usually careful to insist that x has the right to send his or her children wherever he or she likes. Instead, they focus on the quality issue and the case is held up as evidence that the government has no faith in its own education system.
Here is a newspaper article from 2007 which fuels British people’s worries that educational standards in the country are poor. It was headlined ‘A sad lesson’.
When Aleksander Kucharski arrived in Britain from Poland, he expected he would get a first-class education. He was accepted at a state school with one of the best academic records in the country.
But after two years he is so disillusioned he has gone home to his old school, saying his British classmates were interested only in shopping and partying. ‘The boys were childish,’ said 16-year-old Aleksander, ‘they didn’t read papers and weren’t interested in anything. And the girls only talked about shopping and what they were going to do on Friday night.’
In Poland, you have to know the names of all countries, even the rivers. But in England hardly anyone could place Poland or Kenya on the map. The teachers didn’t test knowledge, only effort.’
Aleksander said that before he left Poland he was an average student. ‘In Poland, I only ever got average marks in Maths, yet in the UK teachers said I was genius. After a year, I was top of the class in everything, and that includes English.’
A spokesman for the St Thomas More High School in Newcastle said: ‘We are disappointed that this pupil has decided to move away. Only two weeks ago the school was recognized by Ofsted as outstanding.’ (This is the name of the government organization which inspects schools in Britain.)
Ever since schools made their appearance in Britain, it has been customary for pupils to wear school uniforms. When few children went to any kind of school, uniforms were a sign of status. It proclaimed the child’s attendance and it showed that the parents could afford to buy it. When schooling became universal, most schools took this lead and insisted on their pupils wearing uniform. It was a mark of aspiration.
During the sixties and seventies, more and more schools abandoned uniforms; they were regarded as a burden on the parents’ finances and it was believed that they stifled creativity and individualism.
For the last 20 years, however, the pendulum has been swinging the other way. These days, the vast majority of parents are in favour of uniforms. Ironically, this is for the same reason that made them want to get rid of them previously- money. These days, buying a uniform is likely to be less expensive than buying their children the fashionable clothes which they otherwise demand.
There is still a large minority of schools in Britain which do not prescribe a uniform. But they often come under pressure from government advisers, who believe uniforms are symbols of belonging and lead to an improvement in academic performance.
Languages anyone?
For years now, educationalists, economists and official reports have been bemoaning the poor state of language-learning in British schools and the low level of foreign language ability in general among the British population. The British workforce, say these people, is in danger of being left behind in an increasingly internationalized job-market. And yet, when the national was slimmed down in the early years of this century, ‘modern foreign languages’ was one of the subjects that was left out. English children are the only pupils in Europe who are allowed to drop foreign languages completely from their studies after the age of 14. Fewer than ten percent learn a foreign language beyond the age of 16. Rather than trying to train a very small section of the population as language specialists.
In Wales, the situation is different. The provision for a ‘foreign language’ is the same as in English but all pupils study both English and Welsh until the age of 16.
There may be another reason why it is so hard to find people to teach in Britain’s schools. It is a common belief that the pupils are very badly behaved. Again, this is a matter of personal opinion. But the experience of the famous independent school Summerhill is perhaps indicative. When it was founded in 1923 by the educationalist, A.S. Neill, his vision was for a school where children could learn that adults were not people to be frightened of, where they policed themselves and where they learnt because they wanted to, not because they were forced to. Neil once famously said he would rather turn a child into a happy street-sweeper than a successful but miserable professional. Accordingly, the tradition at the Summerhill is that the children themselves set and police the rules and lessons are not compulsory. In the school’s heyday in the sixties, it was an icon of the hippy movement, with stories of pupils reciting Shakespeare to cows and going communal nude bathing.
How times change! This noble idea of a libertarian education was all very well when the pupils had already learnt at least the concepts of rules and discipline from their parents and of co-operation from their brothers and sisters. But now children tend to come from much smaller families, so that these concepts are less necessary. The present head of Summerhill, who is Neil’s daughter and in theory just as committed to his ideals, says that they now get children coming along who are so selfish, so badly behaved, such (in her own words) ‘spoilt brats’, that they have to be taught that living in a community means you cannot always do exactly what you want. Ironically, therefore, Summerhill has found itself in the position of championing a sense of discipline and order.
One effect of the traditional British emphasis on academic learning as opposed to practical training can be seen in the way that people gain qualifications for certain professions. In many cases, this has not traditionally been done within universities. Instead, people go to specialized institutions which are separate from any university. You can study architecture at university, but most architects have learnt their profession at a separate School of Architecture; you can study law at university but this alone does not qualify you to be a lawyer (see chapter 11); you cannot get a teacher’s qualification by doing an ordinary university course – most teachers get theirs at a teacher training college. Until recently, schools were not usually involved in helping people to get qualifications for skilled manual jobs such as bricklaying or carpentry or machine-operating.
In the 1980s, universities and post-16 education generally started moving away from timed, sit-down exams as method of assessment and started awarding some of the total mark for take-home assignments. It was thought that deciding 100% of a mark by sit-down exam put unnecessary stress on many students and unfairly disadvantaged those who were less comfortable working under such conditions. Moreover, take-home pieces of work could be longer and therefore potentially more sophisticated. By the start of this century, in almost all subjects, a large proportion of the mark --- and sometimes 100% of it --- for a particular qualification was awarded for take-home work.
But the trend is now back towards old-fashioned exams. The problem is that today’s students have an opportunity for cheating unavailable to their predecessors -- the internet, making it easy for them to download relevant writing and pretend it is their own. In response, educational institutions now require assignments to be submitted electronically, so that any plagiarism can be detected.
But the problem goes further than that. In the years around the turn of the century, thousands of on-line ‘essay companies’ sprung up. They are not illegal. They say they simply provide information to clients in the requested form but that what the client does with this information is not their business. But of course what the client does is present this work as their own. This ‘information’ is not available on the web; it is sent to clients in email attachments and so cannot easily be detected. In 2006, it was reported that the largest of these companies had supplied 15,000 people with bespoke essays in the previous three years and that the annual turnover of this new ‘service industry’ was about ￡200 million.
The school year
Schools usually divide their year into three ‘terms’, starting at the beginning of September. In addition, schools have a ‘half-term’ (half-term holiday) lasting a few days or a week in the middle of each term.
The exam boards in Britain are not quite as independent as they used to be. There is now a Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) which oversees them. It was due to pressure from the QCA that the examining boards changed their A-level history syllabuses in 2008. It was decided that these syllabuses needed a larger British component.
This was an interesting development. In the early twentieth century, most history in British schools consisted of learning, in minute detail, about the glories of the British empire. Then, in the second half of the century, a reaction set in, and by the end of the century, Britain was more or less ignored. Instead, the focus was on twentieth century dictatorships such as those of Hitler and Stalin. In one A-level syllabus, it was even possible for students to spend 80% of their time on German history in the first half of the twentieth century. The feeling was that the reaction had gone too far.
And there was another reason for this renewed British emphasis. The reality of multicultural Britain means that a very large number of children cannot rely on learning from their parents about the culture and history of the country in which they were born and are being brought up. It is widely felt that, in order to foster a sense of Britishness, they need to be taught it in school. At the same time, historians and educators have warned against a return to the bad old days of empire glorification.
The sixth form
The word form was the usual word to describe a class of pupils in public schools. It was taken over by some state schools simply use the word ‘class’. Since the introduction of the national curriculum and the streamlining of different kinds of educational provision, it has become common to refer simply to ‘years’. However, ‘form’ has been universally retained in the phrase ‘sixth form’, which refers to those pupils who are studying beyond the age of sixteen
Top.
UCAS
If you want to study full time for a first degree at a British university, you do not apply directly to the university. Instead, you apply through the University Central Admissions Service (UCAS). UCAS does not make any decisions about your application. It just acts as a messenger between you and the universities.
This is one development in education in which Britain can claim to have led the world. It was started in 1969. It allows people who do not have the opportunity to be students in the normal way by attending a university to study for a degree through (what has now become known as) distance education. When it started, its courses were taught through television, radio and specially written coursebooks. These days, of course, it uses the internet instead. Students work with tutors, to whom they send their written work and with whom they then discuss it. In the summer, they have to attend short residential courses of about a week.
Academic exams and qualifications
GCSE General Certificate of Secondary Education. The exams taken by most 15 to16 year olds in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Marks are given for each subject separately. The syllabuses and methods of examination of the various examining boards differ. However, there is a uniform system or marks, all being graded from A to G. Grades A, B, C are regarded as ‘good’ grades.
SCE Scottish Certificate of Education. The Scottish equivalent of GCSE. These exams are set by the Scottish Examinations Board. Grades are awarded in numbers, 1 being the best.
A Levels Advanced Levels. Higher-level academic exams set by the same examining boards that set GCSE exams. They are taken mostly by people around the age of 18who wish to go on to higher education. At present, they are split into A1s and A2s. An A1 is worth half an A2 (the full A-level) and can stand as a qualification by itself.
There is a certain amount of dissatisfaction with the A-level system. Many head teachers are now seriously thinking of throwing it out and adopting a foreign model – specifically the baccalaureate. In fact, there are already dozens of schools in Britain which prepare their students for the International Baccalaureate. Many people are now calling for a ‘British Bacc’.
SCE ‘Advanced Highers’ The Scottish equivalent of A-levels.
Degree A qualification from a university. (Other qualifications obtained after secondary education are usually called ‘certificate’ or ‘diploma’ ).
Bachelor’s Degree The general name for a first degree, most commonly a BA (Bachelor of Arts) or BSc (Bachelor of Science). Students studying for a first degree are called undergraduates. When they have been awarded a degree, they are known as graduates. Most people get honours degrees, awarded in different classes. These are:
Class I (known as ‘a first ’);
Class II. I (‘a 2.1 ’ or ‘an upper second’);
Class II.II (‘a 2.2 ’ or ‘an lower second’);
Class III (‘a third’)
A student who is below one of these gets a pass degree (i.e. not an honours degree).
Master’s Degree The general name for a second (postgraduate) degree, most commonly MA or MSc. At Scottish universities, however, these titles are used for first degrees.
Doctorate The highest academic qualification. This usually (but not everywhere) carries the title PhD (Doctor of Philosophy). The time taken to complete a doctorate varies, but it is generally expected to involve three years of more-or-less full-time study.
Types of university
There are no important official or legal distinctions between the various universities in the country. But it is possible to discern a few broad categories.
Oxbridge
This name denotes the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, both founded in the medieval period. They are federations of semi-independent colleges, each college having its own staff, known as ‘fellows’. Most colleges have its own dining hall, library, and chapel and contain enough accommodation for at least half of their students. The fellows teach the college students, either one-to-one or in very small groups (known as ‘tutorials’ in Oxford and ‘supervisions in Cambridge). Oxford has the lowest student/staff ratio in Britain. Lectures and laboratory work are organized at university level. As well as the college libraries, there are the two university libraries, both of which are legally entitled to a free copy of every book published in Britain. Before 1970, all Oxbridge colleges were single-sex (mostly for men). Nearly all now admit both sexes.
The old Scottish universities
By 1600, Scotland boasted four universities. They were Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and St. Andrews. The last of these resembles Oxbridge in many ways, while the other three are more like civic universities (see following column) in that most of the students live at home or find their own rooms in town. At all of them, the pattern of study is closer to the Continental tradition than to the English one - there is less specialization than at Oxbridge.
The early nineteenth-century English university
Durham University was founded in 1832. Its collegiate living arrangements are similar to Oxbridge, but academic matters are organized at university level. The university of London started in 1836 with just two colleges. Many more have joined since, scattered widely around the city, so that each college (most being non-residential) is almost a separate university. The central organization is responsible for little more than exams and the awarding of degrees.
The older civic (‘redbrick’) universities
During the nineteenth century, various institutes of higher education, usually with a technical bias, sprang up in the new industrial towns and cities such as Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds. Their building were of local material, often brick, in contrast to the stone of older universities (hence the name ‘redbrick’). They catered only for local people. At first, they prepared students for London University degrees, but later they were given the right to award their own degrees, and so became universities themselves. In the mid twentieth-century, they started to accept students from all over the country.
The campus universities
These are purpose-built institutions located in the countryside outside a nearby town. Examples are East Anglia, Lancaster, Sussex, and Warwick. They have accommodation for most of their students on site and from their beginning, mostly in the early 1960s, attracted students from all over the country. (Many were known as centres of student protest in the late 1960s and early 1970s.) They tend to place emphasis on relatively ‘new’ academic disciplines such as social science to make greater use than other universities of teaching in small groups, often known as ‘seminars’.
The newer civic universities
These were originally technical colleges set up by local authorities in the first sixty years of this country. Their upgrading to university status took place in two waves. The first wave occurred in the mid 1960s, when ten of them (e.g. Aston Birmingham, Salford near Manchester, and Strathclyde in Glasgow) were promoted in this way. Then, in the early 1970s, another thirty became ‘polytechnics’, which meant that, as well as continuing with their former courses, they were allowed to teach degree courses (the degrees being awarded by a national body). In the early 1990s most of these (and also some other colleges) became universities. Their most notable feature is flexibility with regard to studying arrangements, including ‘sandwich’ courses (i.e. studies interrupted by periods of time outside education). They are now all financed by central government.
The growth of higher education
In 1960, there were fewer than 25 universities in the whole of Britain. By 1980, there were more than 40, and by now there are well over 100 institutions which have university status.
