Random interest in other country's education systems

[Muskys]

To me I've had this interest for a while. When I was 16/17 I wondered what my equivalents "across the pond" were doing.

I love watching school swap episodes and really enjoyed the Chinese school series back in 2015. Been really fascinated by the east Asian countries teach for example maths.

Does anyone else have this?

It's interesting when you live in a country that was once occupied by Great Britannia 🙃

I’ve always been interested in the Scandinavian countries’ school systems. They seem great.

Other education systems both interest me and throw me into despair, because I live in Scotland which has an awful education system. I find it very depressing.

It intrigues me, but knowing people from many different countries Ive learned there is no utopia, that systems much lauded from afar are moaned about by their citizens. Swings and roundabouts with every system and all have variations depending on location within the country

I just like seeing how different school systems teach things. I watched a Chinese system in UK comprehensive episode.

I watched a show where 3 Welsh kids went to south Korea.

I also wonder how university is different in each country as well.

I've got a friend from Zambia, and she tells me that there you don't move up a year until you've passed the exams, so you could be in the same class for years with your you ger siblings catching up / overtaking you. She says it makes kids study hard.
Absolutely blew my mind, imagine having ALN and being stuck in year 1 forever!

School used to me more like this when I was young. Maybe as I was at a small private but we were 3 year groups all in together. Still only 12 in the class. I thought it was great - topic was all learnt together and English maths etc you would work at the right progress for you.

Where I was born its similar to the English system due to occupation, but the school year starts in April rather than September, the English year one also starts the year you turn six rather than the year you turn five. The qualifications at 16 and 18 are very similar to GCSEs and A-levels.

Our two are both under the Swedish system, so our four year old is at pre-school, but in reality despite it being optional its essentially English reception, so when she is six and starts compulsory schooling she will have already completed the equivalent of reception and year one. Some people oddly think where compulsory school start is later that children haven’t been formally learning well before.

Yes but for me it isn’t random I used to be a maths teacher.i did the Shanghai exchange in 2017 or maybe 2018.

feels like a lifetime ago now.

I remember being in primary when in year 5 some of the kids were still working at year 2 level.

What's your experience of the way the Chinese do maths?

The Chinese do maths in a much more coherent way than we do largely as a result of a much more centralised curriculum and a smaller curriculum.

they also do not have the inclusive policies we do so many more children are at special school or otherwise out of mainstream school.

so the ability spread in their classrooms is smaller. They also basically don’t teach stats - so no pie charts/line graphs/pictograms etc etc.

there’s also no expectation that kids who are eg gifted and talented have special provision made for them like there is in the U.K. - you move with the whole class and if you are bored because you already know how to do this/completely understand it then tough.

classes were 40 or more kids. The teachers didn’t know any names or at least no more than two or three kids in the class. No handcrafting of lessons you taught what was on the PowerPoint and said what was on the script.

the teachers were good mathematicians and teachers. When they came over here they were able to write lessons and adapt to English styles and English students very well.

I'm currently at school in Sweden. Sweden has high schools for adults who didn't get the grades as kids. They have college as well, where you sign up just for the bits you're missing. But the high schools are more like regular school. We have timetable of subjects, a mix of fun and work. We have school outings and assemblies. I go as it's a less stressful way of learning swedish.

Is it free?

You talk about the UK as though it is one system - it isn't. In Scotland there is nothing for gifted and talented children.
As far as China is concerned, 40 would be an unusually small class. Some classes have 70 or 80 children.

There may not be an utopia, but there are enormous differences between systems. In some systems, bright children are performing at an incredibly high level. In others (looking at you, Scotland) expectations are very low.
South Korea is an interesting one. From the age of 12 the vast majority of children finish school in the afternoon at about the same time as English children do, and are then bussed to a private school where they have several more hours of lessons. They spend Saturdays at the private school too. So they spend about twice as many hours at school as English children do.

When I was at university I went to Sweden and went on work experience at some of the schools there. It was an amazing opportunity. One of the schools was next door to a care home for elderly people and the elderly people could look out of their windows to see the children playing in the playground.

I have been doing this to learn Swedish as well, more places could do something similar to improve adult education. I also like that there is genuinely zero stigma about going back to school as an adult.

As a Scottish teacher, working in Scotland I’m curious as to what makes you say that?

Have a (real) look at the education threads on Scotsnet. Occasionally a teacher drops in, tells us that we shouldn't listen to the experiences of people from different education systems or to parents or to pupils and that everything in Scottish education is great (despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary) and then goes off in a huff rather than actually taking anything onboard.

Look at numeracy rates in China Vs the UK

Can you imagine having a class of 70 or 80 in a British primary or secondary school? In China they can manage that without significant disciplinary issues. It's largely to do with the parents caring about education and supporting the school and teachers.
If there's a one-off public holiday in China, the children and teachers are required to make that day up by going into school on Sunday. The message constantly given is that education REALLY matters.

Yes, all education is free in Sweden. There's just a small charge each term to cover excursions and fika (breaktime snacks).

School systems are reflection of the culture as a whole and their attitudes to responsibility etc.
People idolise the Scandi countries for their education systems but wouldn’t be so embracing about the national service for example.

Folkhögskola?