Education

Why do people need education?
Describe the school systems in our country and in some other countries
Compare them

Education is one of the most important things in our life. Everybody should be at least basically educated. If the people are highly educated they can get a good, well-paid job. If someone has only basic education, he or she usually can’t get as good job as more educated people. However when he or she has a powerful and rich parents this person could be successful too. People with university mostly think that they must have the best jobs and the most money. Situation is a bit different. There are not enough jobs neither for less educated nor for high educated. High educated also would like to earn a lot of money from the beginning, but it’s not possible. People with low education usually work as cleaning women or workers. These jobs are also important but they are not very well paid. There are some problems with illiterate people in some countries – they can’t read and write and they don’t want to work. In our country exists a problem with Roma people (gypsies). On the other hand it’s good that there is some kind of balance between university graduates and high school or vocational school (odborné učiliště) former students (absolvent) because if we would imagine the world full of intelligent people - there wouldn’t be any of those cleaning men (women) or builders, labours, etc.
Education in Czech republic
Pre-school education starts in kindergartens (školka) at the age of 3 years. Children play together here, they learn how to draw, they learn also the basics of hygiene which includes washing hands after the using if toilet or before eating a food. Primary education starts at basic school. Children start learning at the age of 6 and end at the age of 15 - it has two degrees (low and high). Low degree includes learning writing, reading and counting and the second includes learning geography, physics, chemistry, advanced level practising foreign language. Everyone can choose secondary education. Teenagers ending the basic school give their application to gymnasium - it doesn’t have any specializations, it carries on with teaching in general way, to specials schools - technical school, economical, etc., to vocational school - prepares young people to the practical professions such as cook, painter, blacksmith, etc. After successfully passing maturita exams the most of people from gymnasiums and special schools go to the universities. There they can study economics, medicine, art, computers, geography, languages, philosophy, law, etc. This study takes 5 or 6 years and each year (turn) is divided to two terms. They finish this study with defence of their thesis (diplomová práce).
Education in Great Britain
Czech children British children spend their pre-school time similar as the children from Czech. The education starts at the age of 5. They go to primary schools, which we can divide into two parts: infants (5 to 7) and juniors (7 to 11). Children learn writing, reading, counting, they also learn how to get on with friends and teachers. At the age of 11 they start to attend secondary schools, which are called comprehensive (všeobecná střední škola) schools in GB. The children are divided into groups called streams according to their abilities. They are allowed to study only the subjects they are interested in. At the age of 16 they leave the school and do the O-level exams (they take it in 10 subjects). Then they decide whether they want to continue or not. If so, they study 2 or 3 years and then, at the age of 18, they sit for A-level exams. They take it in 3 or 4 subjects. There are about 47 universities in GB. The most known are Oxford and Cambridge, where is a typical tutorial system (each student has its own teacher, who helps him). University usually lasts 3 or 4 years (5 or 6 in medicine, dentistry and veterinary sciences). Students can get a degree of bachelor and they could study to get a degree of master.
Education in Spanish
Children come to kindergarten from 6 months to 5 years. It has 2 cycles - the first is similar to our recently restoring crèches [krešs] (jesle), it takes form 6 months to 3 years; the second is from 3 to 5 years. Then it’s basic school from 6 to 12 years. Children learn how to count, read, write, etc. during three double-years cycles. Then it’s high school which is compulsory and it takes 4 years (from 12 to 16 years). When teenager reaches 16 years he could go and work manually. Or student can press on (carry on) with 2 years maturita education (optional). Students can choose from 4 alternative ways of interest: science and hygienic, humanities and social sciences, technique, art. After final exam on high school these students can carry on and study on university. Education on university is divided to 3 cycles and after successful graduating each of them student obtains a college degree and may stop educating. First cycle lasts three years and after graduation students receive the title according to their specialization (Diplomado, Ingeniero Técnico or Arquitecto Técnico). Second cycle lasts 2 years, in medicine 3 years, and student i able to use the college degree Licenciado, Ingeniero or Arquitecto. The third two-year cycle focusing on independent scientific research completed by obtaining a graduate degree Doctorado.
In my opinion is the less complicated system of education in Czech Republic. But it is maybe just because I’m accustomed to our Czech country. However there is one really great point in Spanish pre-school period - crèches. It’s partly solving problem with maternity leave (mateřská dovolená) because if the women has a job before she gets pregnant - good for her, but after she gives a birth to her baby she has to take care of him/her and this takes some period of time. In the meantime she is not working of course and her employer couldn’t have enough patience and she could be fired.