Training
The state has long played a modest role in the British
school system, which was dominated by the church. In 1870,
public schooling for ages 5-10 years was introduced with
state grants and local school boards alongside private
grammar schools and public schools. In 1902,
the school boards were abolished, and for the compulsory
school, local educational authorities (LEA) were
established with great powers.
 In the 1944 Education Act, the compulsory
schooling, which until then only covered the primary school,
was extended to the secondary school. School duty ended at
15 years (since 1974 16 years). Legislation in 1986 and 1988
meant increased freedom for the boards of local school units
visāvi LEA to decide on funding and staff. These boards have
a majority representing parents and a minority representing
LEA. At the same time, the Ministry, Department for
Education, gained greater influence through the
introduction of a national curriculum and national
evaluations, where the students' level of competence is
prioritized. Schools with more than 200 students can, if a
majority of parents so wish, stand outside the LEA ("opt
out") and directly submit to the ministry. See TOPSCHOOLSINTHEUSA for TOEFL, ACT, SAT testing locations and high school codes in United Kingdom.
In Scotland, where literacy of the population went faster
than in England, the school system in particular has its own
profile. Under the Scottish Minister of Affairs, the
Scottish Education Council is a kind of school board
but not for the universities. A similar body exists for
Northern Ireland.
The school structure introduced in the 1944 Education
Act has, with one important exception, namely the
secondary school's line system. The first six school years
consist of primary school, divided into 2-year-old
infant school for 5-7 year-olds and 4-year
junior school for 7-11-year-olds. Then, for a long
time, differentiation took place on three different lines or
school types: grammar school with a prestigious
theoretical curriculum, and therefore most sought after,
secondary technical with vocational education and
secondary modern with a more general curriculum. The
latter type of school usually received the residual group
from the first two. The selection for grammar schools,
the so-called 11-plus examination, took place with
standardized tests and interviews. About 20% of all students
were admitted to this line. In the 1960s, it was proposed
that the selection at the age of 11 be abolished and that
all secondary schools would be so-called comprehensive
schools. At the same time, measures were proposed for
children with special needs and more child-centered,
"progressive" teaching forms. This meant that S. for a time
became a pioneer in the field of low and middle school
education. Graduation from the Secondary School, General
Certificate of Education (GCE) is available in
two levels, Ordinary level (O-level) and
Advanced level (A-level); the latter
provides general eligibility for college studies.
In 1990, the private sector in the school sector received
7.4% of all school-age youth. Private schools, which charge
fees, are partly public schools, often, but not
always internally, but with significant resources, e.g. high
teacher density, and direct grant schools, which
are day schools whose students live at home. Both private
schools and former grammar schools, now
comprehensive schools, have traditionally had free
spaces for gifted students from economically disadvantaged
homes.
The university organization was long dominated by Oxford
and Cambridge ("Oxbridge"), founded in the 12th and 13th
centuries, and the University of London (from 1836). The
oldest Scottish universities, Saint Andrews founded in 1410
and Glasgow in 1451, have well established traditions in the
learned world. About fifteen red brick universities were
added during the 20th century. But the need for
postsecondary education grew strongly after World War II,
and proposals were made to expand the university
organization with postsecondary polytechnics.. They
announced advanced vocational training for e.g. technicians
and teachers but had no research link. After a parliamentary
decision in the 1960s, there was a dual system of higher
education for a long time. These "glassplate universities"
were integrated in 1992 in the university organization,
which thereby got about 90 universities.
An important feature of the country's higher education is
the 1969 Open University, which successfully
announces distance education for university graduates and is
open to all.
In December 2014, the United States Congress published a
600-page summary of a 5,000-page report on the CIA's torture
program since 2001. The most interesting part of the summary
was that it lacked any reference to Britain's participation
in the torture program. The common presumption was that the
British government had done a desperate lobbying job in
Washington to avoid being mentioned. In December 2013, the
UK Government agreed to conduct a study on the UK's
participation in the program, thereby running from previous
promises that the study should be independent. The British
move was therefore criticized from the outset by the
international human rights organizations.
Britain's relations with Russia were cooled down
to the Cold War level in 2014 due to the situation in
Ukraine. Already in March, the country ceased all
military cooperation with Russia and put a stop to the issue
of licenses for arms exports to Russia. During the year,
Britain was at the forefront of tightening EU sanctions on
Russia, which would hit the country's banking and oil
industries. Russia then responded again with sanctions on,
among other things. Britain, which hit the country’s
agricultural and industrial exports. Following the defeat of
the United States and NATO in Afghanistan, a new enemy was
needed, and Russia was set to fill that role in early 2014
as it opposed Western expansion in Ukraine.
By the spring of 2015, Labor seemed to be winning the
parliamentary election, but when the election was held in
May, it was a staggering defeat for the Labor party, going
back 24 seats to 232, while the Conservatives went 28 to
330. Liberal Democrats was almost wiped out when the party
went back 48 seats to 8. The Scottish Nationalist Party
(SNP) led by Nicola Sturgeon in turn went 50 seats up to 56.
The country's third largest party, UKIP (UK Independence
Party), rose 9.5% to 12.6% of the votes cast, but due to
Britain's electoral system, only the party's chairman, Nigel
Farage, was elected. Sinn Feinlost lost 1 term and
got 4. Former radical Labor member George Galloway who put
up independent smoke also came out. The main reason for
Labour's defeat was the SNP's overwhelming election victory
in Scotland. As a result, Labor leader Ed Milliband stepped
down. David Cameron, on the other hand, could form a
majority government solely on the conservatives' own terms.
After the parliamentary elections, Labor had to elect a
new leader. Left wing candidate Jeremy Corbyn was not
predicted many chances. He had only the support of 35 of
Labour's 232 members in parliament, but in the September
general election he got 59.5% of the vote. The election was
an expression of rebellion from the party's base against the
right-wing Labor members who represented the party in
parliament and the right-wing course Tony Blair embarked on
in 1994. The election caused fierce quarrels and conflicts
in the party, with the chairman and most of the
parliamentary group standing on each its own policy. The
split was evident during the November-December debate on
British war in Syria. While Corbyn was opposed to British
participation in the war, his shadow Foreign Minister Hilary
Benn and a majority in the parliamentary group were too.
They therefore voted in favor,
The Conservatives used the electoral victory to signal
that they wanted a thorough settlement of human rights. The
government declared that the Human Rights Act would be
repealed and replaced with a much weaker "British Bill of
Rights". Both the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and
the UN Human Rights Committee stated that repealing the law
would lead to a drastic weakening of human rights protection
in the UK. In June, the government also made a proposal to
drastically reduce the already limited professional rights.
The proposal introduced a large number of legal obstacles to
prevent the working class from carrying out strikes.
In October, the government presented a new "anti-extremism"
strategy that allowed bans on specific organizations,
imposed restrictions on people and prevented the conduct of
a wide range of activities. This was a further attack on
fundamental human rights.
Britain refused to take its share of the refugees from
the overwhelming 900,000 stream that entered Europe in 2015.
The result was the creation of a tent camp in Calais from
which tens of thousands of refugees through 2015 tried to
smuggle themselves into the UK. Several hundred died during
the trials. In September, the pressure on the government was
so great that it agreed to receive 20,000 over a 5-year
period - ie 4,000 a year. Britain had de-facto already
turned its back on Europe and its problems.
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) noted through
2015 that the UK intelligence services with GCHQ at the
forefront systematically monitored the UK population and
violated both the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the
European Convention on Human Rights.
The UN Working Group on arbitrary detention issued a
ruling in February 2016 on Britain's 3-year detention of
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. The working group
knew the detention was illegal and promptly ordered the
British authorities to put an end to it. Authorities ignored
the UN. The British state has spent hundreds of millions Ģ
since 2012 guarding the Ecuadorian Embassy in London around
the clock. Assange is confined to the embassy.
In May 2016, the Joint Committee for Human Rights
released its report on the use of drones for targeted
killings. The report revealed, among other things, The RAF's
drone attack in Raqqa in Syria in 2015 that killed 3rd
including a suspected British member of IS. The report
called on the government to present its policy of targeted
assassinations during armed conflicts and its role in other
states where there was no armed conflict.
Sources:
Abbreviationfinder |
