Education in the United Kingdom

As with everywhere else in the world, education is one of the most important
aspects to not only the lives of the people who live in the UK, but it is also the aspect of a
persons life that will dictate a persons standing in society. However, education takes a
certain priority in the UK. There are three subjects in particular that I will be focusing on
in this report, Youth Literacy, Preschool Participation, and Adult Literacy.
One of the ways we can see this in reflection is the fact that 81.8 percent of
children in the UK attend a preschool (UNICEF). This is both a reflection on the fact that
education takes a priority in the UK and the fact that so many students have parents who
work full time jobs, which is another indication of the education being successful in the
UK.
Another way that we can look at this valuation of education in the UK is by
looking at graphs that show the different literacy levels in the worlds countries.
According to Worldmapper, a website that specializes in creating maps that show
statistics by adjusting the size of countries in conjunction with the said statistic, the world
average for youth literacy, or the percentage of children between the ages of 12 and 15
that can read and write in a language, is 88% (Worldmapper). When it comes to the UK,
because of the enlarging within the graph (fig. 1) one can assume the number for the UK
is above the world average.

Figure 1
Same could be said for Russia and China, which could be attributed the Communist
regimes making literacy a requirement in these countries (while Russia is not
communists, many of the educational policies from the Soviet Union days rolled over
during the movement to a Federation in the 1990s).
Another way we can determine the value of education in every country is by
looking at the various education goals that were established by the UN for every country
to strive for. One of these goals, the establishment of preschooling for children was
already referenced in this report, with the UK having 81.8 percent of all children
attending pre-primary school. The second goal, the providing of free, compulsory
primary schooling, is a goal that has been part of the British tradition for centuries, with
free schooling going all the way back to the 1600s. According to UNESCO, the
percentage of males that attend primary school in the UK is 99.8% while the number of
females is a little lower at 99.6% (UNESCO).
Providing further education options and teaching life skills are two goals that are
very similar to each other, especially in terms to the UK. College is huge part of British
Culture, as the participation rate in college with the UK, 47%, is higher than the global
average (Department of Business Innovation and Skills). By providing affordable college

options along, the UK is able to teach life skills to its people and create better paying,
high quality jobs for the college graduates to work.
Not only is the UK succeeding in these goals, but also they are also able to
succeed in terms of improving adult literacy. This can be clearly seen by looking at fig. 2,
which shows adult literacy on a global scale, showing that the UK is above the world
average in terms of adult literacy.

Figure 2

Participation of males and females in the schools are very close in terms of
numbers, which shows that the UK strives to ensure that women are given the same type
of opportunities as men, which helps show growth in one of the goals the UN set down.
The last goal that UN wants growth in is to improve the quality of education. This is
achieved in the UK much in the same way it is achieved here in the United States, with
the establish of stricter rigor, standards for schools to stick to when creating curriculum,
and keeping schools accountable.
Education is something that should be taken seriously in every country. Education
opens doors for people who otherwise would not have a chance to bring themselves up in

the world. The UK strives to follow the guidelines set down by the UN, but not only do
they strive to meet them, they strive the exceed them.

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