Culture of Scotland: Encyclopedia II - Culture of Scotland - Scottish education

Culture of Scotland - Scottish education

, see also Category:Education in Scotland.

Scotland also has a separate Scottish education system. The Act of Union guaranteed the rights of the Scottish universities, but more importantly, Scotland became the first country since Sparta in classical Greece to implement a system of general public education. This began with the Education Act of 1696 and became compulsory for children from the implementation of the Education Act of 1872 onwards.

As a result, for over two hundred years Scotland had a higher percentage of its population educated at primary, secondary and tertiary levels than any other country in Europe. The differences in education have manifested themselves in different ways, but most noticeably in the number of Scots who went on to become leaders in their fields during the 18th and 19th centuries. The politician Jim Wallace stated in October 2004, that Scotland produces a higher number of university and college graduates per-head than anywhere else in Europe.

School students in Scotland sit Standard Grade exams and then Higher Grade and/or Advanced higher exams. Also, a Scottish university's honours degree takes four years of study as opposed to three in the rest of the UK. The university systems in several Commonwealth countries show marked affinities with the Scottish rather than the English system.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Scottish education", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki