School and study

While in Britain primary shools are for children from five to eleven, in Slovakia they ate attended by children between six and fifteen. British primary schools are usually divided infant shool (5-7) and junior school (7-11). Secondary school is for children aged between 11 and 18. In Slovakia a nine-year attendance of primary education has been introduced to provide enough time for pupils to choose theirfuture career through the system od different kinds od secondary schools such as: ´gymnázium´, secondary technical schools and vocational schools and some apprentice centres.

To finish secondary education, students have to pass the school-leaving examination (maturita exam). They can choose subjects they would like to continue in, except their mother tongue. They have to choose between mathematics or foreign languages as well, but it depends on the type of the school. InCentral and Eastern Europe a new process of the school-leaving examination is on. New trends inthese countries, the high mobility of students, the possibility to seek for work or study in other countries has brought about the necessity for exams which will be objective, valid and acceptable in a variety of concepts.

Many students want to continue their studies at universities where they study law, medicine, business or international relations and so on. First-year student usually have to get accustomed to an independent system od attending lectures and tutorials. While during their primary and secondary education they were given marks, at universities they have to get credits and grades A, B, C, D, E, (if they pass) and FX (if they fail). Most British universities use three-term system, while in Slovakia winter and summer terms are regular periods of the academic year.

Different children have not only different educational needs but use different strategies to learn. Some prefer teacher explanation, some learn from reading or hearing and others are eager to get new information from the Internet or encyclopeadias.