The educational system generally refers to the structure of all institutions and the opportunities for obtaining
education
Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...
within a country. It includes all pre-school institutions, starting from family education, and/or
early childhood education
Early childhood education (ECE), also known as nursery education, is a branch of Education sciences, education theory that relates to the teaching of children (formally and informally) from birth up to the age of eight. Traditionally, this is ...
, through
kindergarten
Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...
, primary, secondary, and tertiary schools, then
lyceum
The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies among countries; usually it is a type of secondary school. Basic science and some introduction to ...
s,
college
A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary sc ...
s, and
faculties also known as
Higher education (University education). This framework also includes institutions of continuous (further) professional and personal education, as well as private educational institutions.
While the education system is usually regulated and organized according to the relevant laws of a country, a country's education system may have unregulated aspects or dimensions. Typically, an education system is designed to provide education for all sections of a country's society and its members. It comprises everything that goes into educating the population.
Educational systems may be structured in either centralized or decentralized formats. Comparative case studies indicate that centralized educational systems, such as that of South Korea, provide more favorable educational outcomes than decentralized systems, such as those in Brazil and South Africa.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
) recognises nine levels of education in its
International Standard Classification of Education
The International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) is a statistical framework for organizing information on education maintained by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It is a member of the int ...
(ISCED) system (from Level 0 (pre-primary education) through Level 8 (doctoral)). UNESCO's
International Bureau of Education
The International Bureau of Education (IBE-UNESCO) is a UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations ...
maintains a database of country-specific education systems and their stages.
Revision of the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED)
Retrieved 5 April 2012.
See also
* Business School
A business school is a higher education institution or professional school that teaches courses leading to degrees in business administration or management. A business school may also be referred to as school of management, management school, s ...
* System
A system is a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its open system (systems theory), environment, is described by its boundaries, str ...
* Education
Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...
* Educational equity
Educational equity, also known as equity in education, is a measure of equity in education. Educational equity depends on two main factors. The first is distributive justice, which implies that factors specific to one's personal conditions should ...
* Educational stage
Educational stages are subdivisions of formal learning, typically covering early childhood education, primary education, secondary education and tertiary education. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) re ...
* International Standard Classification of Education
The International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) is a statistical framework for organizing information on education maintained by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It is a member of the int ...
Bibliography
* Kallen, Denis (1996) Evaluating and reforming education systems. Paris, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
* Helmut Fend: ''Die sozialen und individuellen Funktionen von Bildungssystemen: Enkulturation, Qualifikation, Allokation und Integration.'' In: Hellekamps, S./Plöger, W./Wittenbruch, W. (Hrsg.): ''Handbuch der Erziehungswissenschaft''. Bd. 3: Schule. Paderborn u. a. 2011, S. 41–53.
* Průcha, Jan. (1999) Vzdělávání a školství ve světě. 1. vyd. Praha: Portál, 320 s. ISBN 80-7178-290-4. S. 16
* Peeter Mehisto, Fred Genesee (2015) Building Bilingual Education Systems, Cambridge University Press,
* Michael Belok, Krishna Gopal (1979) Educational Systems: Occidental and Oriental. Anu Prakashan
* García Garrido, José Luis. (ed.) Diagnosis of the Educational System. Madrid, Instituto Nacional de Calidad y Evaluación (España) 2000
* Sam Kaplan (2006) The Pedagogical State: Education and the Politics of National Culture in Post-1980 Turkiye, Stanford University Press
* Clyde Chitty (1999) The education system transformed. Tisbury : Baseline Book
* EURYDICE:European Unit (1988) The Greek education system, Brussels, Published for the Commission of the European Communities, Directorate-General orEmployment, Social Affairs and Education
* Musa Kraja (1998, 2006) Pedagogjia. Tiranë,
Further reading
* del Río, Adrián; Knutsen, Carl Henrik; Lutscher, Philipp M. (2024).
Education Policies and Systems Across Modern History: A Global Dataset
. ''Comparative Political Studies''.
References
Education systems
Social systems
{{Edu-stub