Education in Caldia
| File:Glyt Ministry of Education Logo.png | |
| Ministry of Education | |
|---|---|
| Minister of Education | Gráinne Ní Cheanndubháin |
| National education budget | |
| Budget | €23.2 billion €2500 per student |
| General details | |
| System type | National |
Education in Caldia is mandatory for all children between age 5 and 17. The compulsory Caldish education system follows a three-tiered model that includes primary (bunscoile), secondary (meánscoile), and tertiary (treascoile) education. Typically, primary education lasts from ages 3-7, secondary from ages 8-12, and tertiary from ages 13-17. After completing ísleoideachas (lower education), a student moves on to completely his or her ardoideachas (higher education). Depending on the path chosen, students can either attend a trade school or university after completing Grade 13. Higher education typically starts at the age of 18. While it is not mandatory, the government strongly encourages students to pursue ardoideachas. Small tuition fees are charged for trade schools, universities, as well as pre-schools.
The school year begins on the third Monday of January and ends on 30 November. Should 30 November fall on a Saturday or Sunday, the school year ends on the last weekday of November. There is a school holiday for the entire month of June, as well as other school holidays throughout the academic year. The school year is divided into semesters, with the First Semester taking place from January to May and the Second Semester from July to November.
All schools, in both ísleoideachas and ardoideachas, are operated by the state and are part of the Ministry of Education. The annual education budget is over €23.2 billion, with €2500 being spent per capita. Schools are run through the joint efforts of municipalities and the national government. Private schools are prohibited and homeschooling is allowed but is closely supervised by the government and seldom allowed.
Overview
The traditional path for education is as follows:
Pe-school - Réamhscoile
- Ages 1-2
Primary - Bunscoile
- Ages 3-7
- Kindergarten: age 3-4
- Grade 1: age 5
- Grade 2: age 6
- Grade 3: age 7
Secondary - Meánscoile
- Ages 8-12
- Grade 4: age 8
- Grade 5: age 9
- Grade 6: age 10
- Grade 7: age 11
- Grade 8: age 12
Tertiary - Treascoile
- Ages 13-17
- Grade 9: age 13
- Grade 10: age 14
- Grade 11: age 15
- Grade 12: age 16
- Grade 13: age 17
University - Ollscoil
- Ages 18+
- First Year: typically age 18
- Second Year: typically age 19
- Third Year: typically age 20
- Fourth Year (for MA programs only): typically age 21
Pre-schools
The government operates pre-schools known as réamhscoile (plural: réamhscoileanna) and has done so since the 1960s. Réamhscoileanna are for children between the ages of one and two. Typically, children are introduced to the alphabet, colours, and a basic vocabulary, usually consisting of words for family members. They are optional, as compulsory education begins at age three. These schools are essentially public daycare centres that allow parents to send their kids to school during the work day. There is a tuition fee charged, but the government and parents share the cost, with the government covering eighty-five percent of the fee. While many réamhscoileanna are located in bunscoileanna (primary schools), they also operate in workplaces such as government and corporate offices or factories.
Ísleoideachas
Primary schools
Secondary schools
Tertiary schools
Alternative education
Ardoideachas
Trade schools
University
3 years for a BA, 1 year for a MA (4 years total)
2 years for PhD.
Languages
Glytter has a tradition of learning foreign languages, formalised in Glytteronian education laws. Ghaillish courses are mandatory in all primary schools and Estmerish is a mandatory course in all secondary and tertiary schools. In most secondary school educations, one additional modern foreign language is mandatory during the final two years.
In tertiary schools, two additional modern foreign languages are mandatory during the first three years. Only during the last two years in pre-university tertiary education one foreign language is mandatory. Besides Estmerish, the standard modern languages are Gaullican, Sveltlanan, and Weranic, although schools can replace one of these modern languages with Lusitan, Badawiyan, or Kaxakh.
Teachers
Primary, secondary, and tertiary teachers must have a master's degree to qualify. Teaching is a respected profession and entrance to university programs is highly competitive. A prospective teacher must have very good grades and must combat fierce opposition in order to become a teacher. Only about 10% of applicants to certain programs are successful. The respect accorded to the profession and the higher salaries than the global average lead to a higher performance and larger numbers applying for the positions, and this is reflected in the quality of teachers in Glytter.
In order to enter the profession, prospective teachers are required to obtain their BA and their MA in education, requiring a minimum of four years enrollment at university.
Teaching degrees can only be obtained at Glytter's six highest ranking universities: the University of Spálgleann, the University of Gayneva, the University of Invertwinc, St Cuchulain's University, King's University Bulfawst, and Snarksburg University.
Unions
Under Glytteronian law, teachers are required to unionise. There are two unions that teachers may join: the Federation of Ghaillish Teachers (CMG) and the Glyt Teachers Union (AMG). Both groups maintain local chapters in the municipal or county school districts they serve. The AMG typically serves teachers in the southwest of the country while the AMG represents teachers in the northern and eastern regions of Glytter.
History
The roots of the modern Glytteronian education system lie in the Middle Ages. The arrival of Saint Cuchulain and the Sotirian faith in the 700s resulted in the establishment of monasteries. The Solarian alphabet was introduced, enabling monks to preserve large swathes of the extensive oral literature and history which had existed in the Caldish Isles. Previously, Glytter was overwhelmingly an oral society and education was verbal rather than literary. It is widely believed that the courts of nobles had a filidh attached to them, who acted as poets, musicians, and historians and passed on their knowledge in Ghaillish to the next generation. The establishment of the monasteries allowed early Ghaillish scholars to excelled in the study of Solarian learning. Missionaries from Glytter to Stornö and Continental Euclea spread news of the flowering of learning, and scholars from other nations came to Ghaillish monasteries. The excellence and isolation of these monasteries helped preserve Solarian learning during the Early Middle Ages and established the foundations of Glytter's education.
Monasteries often ran schools, resulting in a small educated elite. This educated elite was essential to create and read documents in a largely illiterate society. Education was disrupted with the sacking and destruction of Iona Abbey by Varagian conquerors in 802, there was a temporary setback in education. However, some monks were able to preserve the works of the monastery by smuggling them off the island of Holyhead and to secluded monasteries on the other islands, most notably to Glennock Abbey. The wealth of materials from Glytter's principal monastery allowed the monks to set up new schools. Many grammar schools soon opened and were were usually attached to cathedrals or abbeys. They were most common in the developing burghs along the southern coastline. By the end of the Middle Ages grammar schools could be found in all the main burghs and some small towns. There were also petty schools attached to smaller churches, more common in rural areas. Petty schools provided an elementary education in some of the most illiterate parts of Glytter. The number and size of these petty and grammar schools expanded rapidly from the 1210s after reforms issued by Alastar the Great were implemented. Education was open to both boys and girls, despite opposition from the Church. Attempts to bar girls from education were made, but often failed due to the authority of female monarchs. Queen Morcan VIII issued reforms that required that all children of lairds and freeholders of substance to attend grammar schools. All this resulted in an increase in literacy, but which was largely concentrated among a wealthy elite, with an estimated 60 per cent of the nobility being literate by the end of the period.
The development of petty and grammar schools stagnated during the union between Glytter and the Holy Nordic Empire from 1458 to 1489. The authority of the clergy, even those previously closely aligned to the monarchy, was severely curbed and Emperor Harald the Lodbrok prohibited new schools from opening during his tenure as Lord Regent of Glytter. However, the end of the union and the restoration of the House of MacIconnich would allow the education system to continue developing. Glytter's first university, St Cuchulain's University, opened in 1429 following patronage from Queen Aleanbh II. It was allowed to continue operating under Raglanese rule despite its affiliation to the monks at Glennock Abbey. Three other universities opened during the fifteenth century: the University of Spálgleann in 1492, the University of Gayneva 1495, and the University of Invertwinc in 1498. Queen Devyn II worked closely with the Church to open the schools in an attempt to increase literacy and undo cultural changes implemented by the Raglanese during the regency. While these institutions were designed for the training of clerics, they would increasingly be used by laymen who would begin to challenge the clerical monopoly of administrative posts in the government and law. Previously, Ghailles seeking higher education had to travel abroad for their education. Typically they studied as schools in Estmere and Verlois. While Glytter had its own university, those who wished to pursue second degrees still needed to go elsewhere. As a result, Glytteronian scholars continued to travel to the Continent for education. It was at these schools were Glytteronian scholars established ties with Estmerish and Gaullican scholars. International contacts helped integrate Glytter into a wider Euclean scholarly world and would be one of the most important ways in which the new ideas of humanism were brought into Ghaillish intellectual life.
The Glytteronian Reformation severely impacted Glytter's early school system. The creation of the Church of Glytter saw the Catholic Church lose its control over education, which was transferred to the new Goeldonic Church. Catholics were also banned from schools and universities. The forced the Catholic Church to establish new schools in order to educate members of the nobility and elite in the Highlands who did not convert. The first such school was founded in Benbaun in 1539. Catholic schools began to spread across the Highlands in the decades that followed. They played an important role in the Dejarlist Wars, as the Catholic clergy who taught at them were principal supports of the Dejarlist movement. After the second restoration of the MacIconnich Dynasty, the Roryian universities were established; King's University Bulfawst opened in 1642 and Snarksburg University opened in 1658. Despite the end of the Dejarlist Wars, Catholic schools continued to encourage new generations of nobility to revolt in favour of a Catholic monarchy. As such, the government began to crack down on them. The Flight of the Lairds following the final Catholic uprising in 1735 saw the exile of many prominent members of the Highland's Catholic clergy, severely weakening Catholic schools. Soon after in 1738, King Rory III outlawed all Catholic and private schools. However, Catholics were still banned from the education system. This changed with the reforms of King Kenneth III, who in 1770 allowed Catholics to attend schools and universities for the first time in two hundred years. He also increased royal patronage of education, providing increased funding for schools. This allowed many of them to expand, thus increasing the amount of students they could teach. As a result, attendance was less expensive and the student body more representative of society as a whole. Access to Glytteronian universities was also probably more open than in contemporary Estmere, Werania, Sveltlana, or Gaullica. Humbler students were aided by a system of bursaries established to aid in the training of the clergy and state officials. In this period residence became divorced from the colleges and students were able to live much more cheaply and largely unsupervised, at home, with friends or in lodgings the university towns. The system was flexible and the curriculum became a modern philosophical and scientific one, in keeping with contemporary needs for improvement and progress. Glytter reaped the intellectual benefits of this system in its contribution to the Euclean Enlightenment, which promoted the ideas of civil liberties and equality.
The Industrial Revolution changed the landscape of Glytteronian education. Increased industrialisation and urbanisation saw a break in the traditional parish school system. Increased patronage from the state also contributed to the end of the relationship, which has lasted since the establishment of the Church of Glytter in the 1500s. As a result, schools became secular and many came under the jurisdiction of the state. From 1830 the state began to fund buildings with grants, then from 1846 it was funding schools by direct sponsorship. Education became compulsory in 1849 for all children aged six to thirteen. The Ministry of Education was established in 1874 by the Royal Congress in an attempt to centralise and modernise the system. The Education Act of 1880 set national standards for secondary education and abolished school fees, creating a state-funded national system of free basic education and common examinations. Glytter's Ancient and Roryian Universities were also changed to reflect the needs of the growing middle class and prepare students for modern professions follow acts of congress. Age for entry to universities was raised from fifteen to seventeen and entrance examinations were introduced. Standard patterns of graduation in the arts curriculum offered 3-year ordinary and 4-year honours degrees and separate science faculties were able to move away from the compulsory Solarian, Hellese, and philosophy of the old MA curriculum. The University of and King's University Bulfawst began to tailor to the educational needs of youth from the urban and commercial classes, as well as the upper class. It prepared students for non-commercial careers in government, the law, medicine, education, and the ministry and a smaller group for careers in science and engineering. Trade schools were also opened to cater to the needs of students who wished to enter commercial professions. New universities also began to open during the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Many county governments began to open universities within their borders, with some opting to instead create regional schools.
The education system went unchanged until legislation was pursued by Taoiseach Eleanore Rosaiteir in the 1940s. The ages for compulsory education were adjusted and all children between ages four and fourteen were required to attend school. Taoiseach Mary O'Neill also sought to reform the system, raising the exit age to seventeen. The age to enter university or a trade school was also raised to eighteen. She also established state pre-schools in the 1960s. The system operated under a four-tiered model, with bunscoileanna (primary or elementary schools), meánscoileanna (secondary or grammar schools), and treascoileanna (tertiary or high schools) making up the ísleoideachas (lower education) component and universities and trade schools making up the ardoideachas (higher education) component. The Primary and Secondary Language Act of 1964 mandated that the Estmerish language would be taught as secondary language in all schools. In the 1990s the system was again changed by Taoiseach Morgan Leneghan. The school year was was changed to follow the calendar year, with new school years now starting in January as opposed to August. Three year-olds were also required to attend school, being placed in Kindergarten. Tuition fees for universities and trade schools were also heavily subsidiesed by the government and teaching standards were raised.
Criticism
- LGBT Studies, LGBT History
- "Forced social liberalism, forced multiculturalism"
- Sex education from a young age
- Drug and alcohol safety instruction
- Ban on private schools - religious groups