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Most secondary schools have sixth-form departments providing one-or two-year courses. Some pupils, however, go to a special sixth-form college, where the atmosphere is less like a school and where they are treated as adults. At the sixth-form stage studies are highly specialized in three or four main subjects which will prepare students either for entry to University, Polytechnic or College of Further Education, or for direct entry into employment in industry or commerce.
Specialization is essential for the student who wants to achieve good A-level results, but a sixth-former is also expected to follow the General Studies Course. This course has a very serious purpose; it can provide the opportunity not only for a science specialist to continue with some literature, or an arts student to tackle technology, it can also provide a vehicle for students to discover something about subjects not usually available in school that they might be considering as a choice for University: law, for instance, or psychology. Besides, the General Studies Course tries to offer to all students a wide range of subjects over the two years which are a welcome break from solid academic study and which enable to learn new skills in a relaxed atmosphere. Such subjects as Drama and Conversation, the History of Art or Car Maintenance can maintain an exciting interest with students.
The GCE Advanced Level is normally taken after the two years of study in the sixth form. New examinations, Advanced Supplementary (AS) levels, were introduced for the first time in 1989 and provide an opportunity for sixth-form pupils to make up a much wider curriculum than was previously possible. Students specializing in the arts and humanities, for example, are able to continue to study mathematics and technological subjects at the new level. Or a student can take mathematics and physics at A-level but also study a modern language and economics at AS-level.
A-level and AS-level are the main standard for entrance to University or other higher educational institutions and to many forms of professional training.
The examinations are not set bу the Government, but by independent examinations boards, most of which are associated with a particular university or group of universities.
Scotland, with a separate education tradition, has a slightly different system. Children stay in the primary cycle until the age of twelve. They take the Scottish Certificate of Education (SC E) usually at the age of sixteen, and instead of A levels, take the Scottish Higher Certificate which is more like continental European examinations, since it covers a wider area of study than the highly specialised A-level courses. Scots pupils who wish to continue their studies beyond the Higher may take the Certificate of Sixth Year Studies (CSYS).
For less academically inclined pupils, a Certificate of Pre-Vocational Education was introduced in 1986, as a qualification for a further year of full-time education after sixteen to prepare for work or vocational courses.
The academic year begins in late summer, usually in September, and is divided into three terms, with holidays for Christmas, Easter and for the month of August, although the exact dates vary slightly from area to area. In addition each tern there is normally a aid-term one-week holiday, known as 'half-term'. (The chart given below explains how state education is organised in England and Wales).
The Private Sector
Some parents prefer to pay for their children to be educated at independent schools. There are about 2,400 independent schools in Britain. They charge fees varying from around 250 pounds a term for day pupils at nursery age to 2,900 pounds a term for senior boarding pupils. Many offer bursaries to help pupils from less well-off families. Such pupils may also be helped by local education authorities. The government also gives incomerelated help with fees to pupils' at certain music and ballet schools.
By the end of 2000 over 7-9 per cent of the school population attend independent fee-paying schools.
Although the percentage of those privately educated may be a small fraction of thetotal, its importance is disproportionate to its size, for this 7 per cent accounts for 23 per cent of those gaining entry to university. Nearly 65 per cent of pupils leave fee-paying schools with one or more A levels, compared with only 14 per cent from comprehensives. Pupils at independent schools show greater improvement in the examination results than those at state-maintained schools. In later life, those educated outside the state-maintained system dominate the sources of state power and authority in government, law, the armed forces and finance.
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