2.  According to Ofsted (the Office for Standards in Education) British education has a poor international reputation.  In 2000 about 7 million adults were illiterate.  There is indeed a serious discrepancy between state and sector schools in favour of the latter.

3.  A unified system of education was established in 1870.  However only in 1944 primary and secondary state schools became compulsory.  Beside state schools, there were church schools and schools privately financed by rich people.  The latter provided proper education for the future managerial class, while the working class received too basic education.

4.  Despite state schools provided a free education to pupils until the age of 14, that was still insufficient in 1918.  Secondary school education remained a prerogative of the independent sector.  In the early 20 th century state education was extended and some grants given to the best students whose parents couldn’t afford school fees.

5.  After the Education Act of 1944, schooling was divided in primary from 5 to 11 years, secondary school from 11 to 15.  The eleven-plus is the exam which gives the access to the secondary school (the grammar school). Students who failed the exam went to the technical school.  In the 1950s the eleven plus was criticized by the Labour party as the perpetuation of the class system.

6.  In 1964 the Labour government decided to abolish the eleven-plus.  The idea was to extend schooling to all social classes, even though LEAs (Local Education Authorities) had the final word whether choosing comprehensive schools or retaining grammar schools, in accordance with local necessities.  While the abolition of the grammar schools has been approved almost everywhere in the Uk, there are still 164. Britons think that schooling should be more selective and based on continuous tests and assessment.

7.  State school is free and compulsory for pupils from 5 to 17, to 18 in 2015.  They have an autonomous organization which depends on headmasters.  Grammars school are still considered the best ones to prepare future academic students unlike comprehensive schools.  Faith schools.