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Hi, I'm Maxi from Austria. How is the shool education in USA ? Maxi, we will discuss this topic soon! Great question! I would like to learn about education in other countries as well. Let's put all questions and interesting topics for discussion in here, everyone. (Arina, USA teacher). __Hi, I'm Madison from the U.S.A in our class, 6th grade there is 26 in our class, but in our school I dont know, sorry but there is 2 Kindergardans, 1 first grade, 2 second grades, 1 third grade, 1 preschool, 1 fourth grade, 1 fifth grade, 1 sixth grade!!!!!__ Education in the Ukraine ( I thought I will post it from my blog).

Ukrainian schools are different than American schools. Kindergarten is not a part of the public school system. However they are publicly, financed by the government facilities. Kids may attend Kindergarten from age 3-6. They are divided in groups by their age. usually kids have activities designed by their teachers such as music programs, drawing, storytelling, reading. They begin to attend public school at age 6 (1st grade). Students are tested on their basic knowledge and skills before they enter into school. If they score lower then was expected they will be placed in smaller classes where the teacher will hav ae better chance to help them out because of the low number of students. Schools are small in the Ukraine. You can see a couple schools on the same streets. They are walking distance for all students. Ukrainian students do not ride buses unless they attend private schools. All grades share the same building but they might be separated by the different floors. Normally low grades will have their classrooms on first and second floors, older students on the high floors of the building. Elementary students have the same teacher from 1-3rd grades. But in the 4th grade they walk from the classroom to classroom to different teachers who specialized in their teaching area. Ukrainian schools do not provide after school sport events. If students would like to be in sports they have to attend sport schools after school. These are different schools. They are not free schools even though many times they are financed by the goverment. Many schools offers to make a choice for their students by 8th grade if they wants to continue to study or they will chose to attend technical school. If students decide to continue to study, they will have to decide if they would like to learn more about languages, literature, or to go in math and technology. Students have large exams at the end of the year from 5th grade on. By the 12th grade and graduation they have around 7-8 different exams. Scores are very important if students planning to attend college or a university. They still will have to take 4-5 exams before they can enter in college and higher education. Schools are very structured. Discipline is important part of Ukrainian education. Teachers are respected by students and parents. Arina

In United States we have big schools in bigger cities and small schools in small towns. Our town has about 2.000 people. We have one school: Elementary, and Hich school (2 different buildings). There are 12 grades (12 years of school). We have preschool as well (3-5 years old students). They are in separate small building. I do teach them art and music and they also have PE (physical education, sports) classes, when they come to our building. Another music teacher in our school teaches 5th and 6th grade band. They learn their instruments and they play together. Some of our classes small and some are large. We have 2 second grade classes (12 students in each class) for example. But we have only one class of 4th grade, 5th grade, 6th grade. There are about 27-30 kids in each classroom. Every year it changes, depends on how many students we have. I live in bigger town and my own children goes to big school. They have 21-25 students in each classroom. They have many classes in the same grade level. From Kindergarten-6th grade, class has only one teacher who teach all subjects. The only different teachers they have are specials teachers (music, art, PE, library, computers). When students graduate High School they take exam and can apply to colleges and universities. College system is also very different from what I got use to in the Ukraine. But I think it is better, it gives more chances to students to finish education. You can go to college for 4 years and also can earn masters degree if you stay 5th year. All teachers have to have a degree from the university to be able to teach. And, we also take a very big, 2 hours exam for license to teach. Our school is public school. We have some private school as catolic schools, etc. I do think that education is good in United States. I also think that we do need to change things. One day in month or so, we have professional development day. We all discuss and learn something new in teaching, what can we do better. Students have day off those days. We have about 3 months break in summer, about week in fall, 2 weeks for Christmas celebration, less then a week for spring, Easter celebration. When we have a lot of snow, they cancel school and we stay at home and drink hot coca, hahah. I love those days! But we always have to make them up later. Our last day at school normaly May 22, or so. Last year our last day was June 3, because we had many many snowdays.... Well, this is in a few words about USA education. How about education in your country?

Hi, I'm Gerard from Ireland. I'm wondering what the pupil-teacher ratio is in all your countries? Here's a brief overview of the Irish educational System. Gmedia type="custom" key="11618168"

In our school we have 500 pupils approx. We are a medium-sized National School. This is the name we give Elementary schools in the Republic of Ireland. We are situated in Ashbourne, in a rural town 20km to the north-west of Dublin, our capital city. Ashbourne is a dormitory town for Dublin as most people go to Dublin to work. we have a thriving community here, however, with every recreational activity catered for!!! There are some schools with many more pupils than us and lots and lots of rural schools throughout Ireland with only two or three classes. In those schools the grades are mixed, often with 2 or three grades in the one classroom with the one teacher. most schools are co-educational (boys and girls). However, many older schools are still same-sex schools. Some parents like this approach. Some do not. The debate goes on... Our schools are nearly always called after a Saint as we are for the most part, Catholic schools. We are called Saint Mary's School after Mary, the Mother of God. There are a lot of schools with this name!!! There are many Protestant schools too. They call their schools many different names, usually based on the location of the school. We also have schools for our Muslim and Jewish friends, mostly in the larger cities. In the last ten/twenty years there are a lot of multifaith schools as many parents prefer to integrate children to promote mutual understanding. There is a big debate on this issue currently.

Our school has two classes of each grade from age 4years (Junior Infants) to age 12 years ( 6th Class). I like a school our size. we have 26 teaching staff (16 mainstream teachers and 10 for what we call Resource Teaching, that's help with Maths and Reading, Music, National dance and IT, (that's ME)), 4 Special Needs Assistants who work with children with syndromes such as ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) and other psychological or behavioural issues. We also have 2 caretaking staff and 3 staff for cleaning and housekeeping duties.

Any class in our school will typically have about 30 pupils, mixed boys and girls, with mixed ability. The average age of our staff has dropped recently as several senior staff have retired. There is a great atmosphere in our school. Our school day begins at 9.20am and continues until 2pm for Junior and Senior Infants. The rest of the school finishes at 3pm. Teachers, of course start a lot earlier and finish much later than the pupils! With the economic downturn, our pay has been cut, allowances and increments abolished and our hours increased. Maybe it's the same for you? It is just as well that teachers work for the love of education and do not seek motivation in material things!

When our pupils leave Primary (Elementary) school at age 12/13, they start Secondary school, state-funded and public mostly. There are fee-paying secondary schools. These are difficult to get into and are mostly for the well-off. There are two main State Exams: The Junior Certificate is taken at 15 years of age and the Leaving Certificate at 18 years. You need a good result in the Leaving Certificate to get into University or College. I like what I learn from you, Gerard. 30 Students in the classroom? Too many, tooo many. I know I can accomplish soo much more with my smaller classes. I know most of the time in my kids' school ( big school, about 1,800 students) they are trying to keep 22 students or less per class. We have the same with special education and services. Our students do need to earn good score on the exam (only last year at school, but they can take as many times as they want to improve their score) to be able to continue their education in colleges and Universities. Arina.

=Overview of the Austrian school system =

Hello Arina and Gerard, you have been making quite an effort in explaining your country's school systems. I'll be a bit shorter... An Austrian child starts going to school at 6, normally after two years of kindergarten. At 9 (!) a child or the parents and teachers decide where to continue: to "normal" secondary school or to the more acedemic "grammar school" up to the age of 14. Those who want to go on to university go to one of the second-stage schools at grades 9-12 (Oberstufen, see chart below).

Our school @http://www.bgrein.at/

We get our students at 5th grade (age 10-11), at this stage we have about 80 students in four classes, the maximum being 25. But I am the form master of a class of 15, 14 girls plus one boy, which is the smallest class in our school. Altogether we have about 600 students: 400 boys and girls in grades 5-8, and 200 in grades 9-12. The students travel up to 30 km to get to our school, some use three different means of transport to get there. Most of them come by school bus, and it takes them less than half an hour to get to school. School starts at 8 and ends at 1:35 for most of them. Intervals are for five minutes, with a 15- minute break after the third lesson. From grade 8 on they stay in on one or two afternoons.

The students are taught by a staff of ca 60, but typically we teach 20 students in our groups. More than two thirds are female. Most teachers have taken exams in two subjects, my subjects are English and sport.

Our holidays: two weeks at Christmas, one week after the first semester in February, 10 days at Easter, 3-4 days at Whitsun and two Catholic holidays each in May and June, and the summer holidays of nine weeks. So you see we are the end of the "lean spell", lots of holidays ahead of us!

Apart from the size of the schools there are some similarities to Ashbourne: Rein is a quiet village on the outskirts of Graz, the second- largest town in Austria. The school is a state school situated in an old Catholic monastery, in fact the oldest Cistercian monastery in the world.[| http://www.stift-rein.at/]But we teach students of various demominations or none at all, the religious belief of a student or the parents is not decisive. There are still about ten monks in the monastery, with administrative and clerical jobs. vocational Year ||  || Meet Russia!
 * Mandatory for ages 6-15 || 1. |||||||||||| Primary school ||
 * ^  || 2. ||||||||||||^   ||
 * ^  || 3. ||||||||||||^   ||
 * ^  || 4. ||||||||||||^   ||
 * ^  || 5. |||| Higher General Secondary School (Grammar School)- First stage |||||||| Lower Secondary School ||
 * ^  || 6. ||||^   ||||||||^   ||
 * ^  || 7. ||||^   ||||||||^   ||
 * ^  || 8. ||||^   ||||||||^   ||
 * ^  || 9. |||| Higher General Secondary School (Grammar School)- Second stage with Matura exam || Vocational and Technical College with Matura exam ||||  1-4 years Intermediate Vocational and Technical School without Matura exam  || Pre-
 * || 10. ||||^  ||^   ||||^   || 1-4 years of vocational school ||   ||
 * ^  || 11. ||   ||||^   ||
 * ^  || 12. ||   ||||^   ||
 * ^  || 13. ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||

 Pre-school consists of kindergartens. Children there learn reading, writing and arithmetic. But pre-school education isn't compulsory - children can get it at home.

Compulsory education is for children from 6(7) to 17 years of age.

There are various types of schools : general secondary schools, schools specializing in a certain subject, high schools, lyceums and so on.

Tuition in most of them is free of charge, but some new types of schools are fee-paying.

 The term of study in a general secondary school is 11 years and consists of primary, middle and upper stages.

At the middle stage of a secondary school the children learn the basic laws of nature and society at the lessons of history, algebra, literature, physics and many others.

 After finishing 9 forms of a secondary school young people can continue their education in the 10th and 11th form. They can also go to a vocational or technical school, where they study academic subjects and receive a profession. A college gives general knowledge in academic subjects and a profound knowledge in one of several subjects.

Persons who finish the general secondary school, receive a secondary education certificate, giving them the right to enter any higher educational establishment. Entrance examinations are held in July and August. One has to study in the institute for 5 years.

STRUCTURE OF EDUCATION SYSTEM IN RUSSIA Duration of compulsory education: Age of entry: 6 Age of exit: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">17 <span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Structure of school system: //<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Primary // <span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Type of school: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Primary General School <span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Length of program in years: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">4 <span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Age level from: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">6 <span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> to: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">10 //<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Basic // <span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Type of school: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Basic General Secondary School <span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Length of program in years: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">5 <span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Age level from: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">10 <span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> to: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">15 //<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Complete Secondary // <span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Type of school providing this education: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Secondary (Complete) General School, Upper-Secondary School <span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Length of program in years: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">2 <span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Age level from: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">15 <span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> to: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">17 <span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Certificate/diploma awarded: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Attestat o Srednem (Polnom) Obshchem Obrazovanii (Certificate of Secondary Complete General Education, School Leaving Certificate).
 * <span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Pre-higher education: **

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">You guys put so much cool information! I really want to make it clear for myself about the differences in all systems... Can't wait for school break to do so! :) Arina.