Registry Detail
Details
ID:
1831
Type:
Other
Last updated:
26/09/2003 17:44:00
Description:
Education - age groups
Request
Please advice what is the official age group for:
Primary School Education
Secondary School Education
Are these age groups same across all countries
Discussion
Decision
[Response by UNESCO - S.Ellis]
There are two dimensions to this question
1. Ages for compulsory schooling. This is the number of years for which children must (either by law or by convention) attend schooling. This is usually expressed as between certain ages.
2. The classification of the school system by level. Several countries in their national classification combine some elements of what are often called primary and secondary education into a single system called 'basic education'. However in order to introduce international comparability agencies use the UNESCO International Standard of Education (ISCED). ISCED defines primary and secondary education as follows
- primary education, usually has 6 years duration (thus it tends to be from ages 5-7 to ages 11-13). UNESCO Institute for Statistics discusses the length of primary education with representatives from Education Ministries. If they deliver a programme of primary education (eg basic reading writing and maths) in 5 or 7 years rather than six years then primary may be defined as being one year or so shorter or longer than the usual six. Some 30-40% of countries have primary programmes longer or shorter than 6 years.
- scondary education is more variable in length than primary education. It tends to last for 6 or 7 years, following on from primary. The length is related to the duration of the primary cycle and generally is completed at the age of 18. For ISCED purposes we tend to consider a division of Lower and Upper Secondary lasting for 2-3 years each. Lower Secondary covers general education and the beginnings of specialisation. Upper Secondary is usually taught by specialist subject teachers.
From this you can see that there is some varaiation in - the duration in years (the official age group) when children are obliged to be in school, and the duration of both the primary and secondary cycles.