Education - the CR X the UK

The Czech Republic
In the Czech Republic children can go to a nursery school at the age of 3-5 but it isn’t compulsory. Compulsory education starts at the age of 6 when children go to basic school - the first stage is called primary school and lasts 5 years, the second stage is called lower secondary school and it lasts 4 years. After primary school children can go to grammar school for 8 years but they have to do an entrance exam. When children are 14 or 15 years old they finish their compulsory education and they don’t have to do the school leaving exam. After finishing the lower secondary school children usually go to secondary school. We can divide them into 2 main groups - secondary schools with the school leaving exam called maturita and schools with the apprenticeship certificate. If students pass maturita they can go to university.

Most of schools in the Czech Republic are state schools but there are also some private schools, where students have to pay in order to visit them. At schools children don’t have to wear school uniforms.

The United Kingdom
Education system in the United Kingdom is quite different. Compulsory education starts at the age of 5 and finishes at the age of 16. Of course there are nursery schools for children at the age of 3 or 4 years. After nursery school they go to primary school to the age of 11 and after that continue to secondary school to the age of 16. When they finish their compulsory education they have to do the school leaving exam GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) which is also called “O” level and they can stay at school for 2 more years. This is called sixth form. If a student wants to go to the university, he has to pass exams called “A” level. It means exams in 3 or 4 subjects.
If the student gets a place at the university, he has to pay fees. However some students - usually the most clever and skilful - can get a grant so they have enough money to study there. Students at a university are called undergraduates while they are studying for their first degree. During their courses they are doing a degree and when they finish and pass their exams, they have a degree bachelor. These students who complete the first degree are called graduates. Some of them continue a do the second course - postgraduate - and they are masters or doctors.
In addition there are schools for students of all ages - they are called “Adult education” or “Lifelong learning”.

In the United Kingdom children and also students have to wear school uniforms.

The school year begins on the 1st of September or on the first working day in September and ends 30th of June or the last working day in June because children don’t go to school at the weekends. During the school year children have holidays - for example at Christmas.
Students are evaluated by marks from 1 to 5. 1 is the best and 5 is the worst. Each term students get their school report with marks from both compulsory and elective subjects.
In the Great Britain there is a big number of universities - I think mostly 50. The most famous and the oldest ones are Oxford and Cambridge.