Education in Europe

Children at Junior British School - Leidschenveen, Netherlands

To those who are not familiar with the european system, determining which grade or which year your child will be can be confusing. In our country, the year a child was born will determine when he will be in Year 1. But in Europe, it's not like that. For one thing school year begins as early as mid August or early September (depends on which school you go to) and it will end the following mid June or mid July, then the children will have a range of 2 months summer holiday(could be 7 weeks, again it depends on which school). Here, which month & year your child was born will determine which year/grade he goes into. The cut off month is 31st August, if a child was born between September to December, he will go into a lower academic year as compared to friends born prior to September. Does it make any sense? To make things simpler, I will give an example here:

For a child born in June 2002 ;

In Malaysia, in year 2011 : He is in Tahun 3

At International Sch Amsterdam : He is in Grade 3 (academic year 2010/2011)

At British School Netherlands : He is in Year 4 (academic year 2010/2011)

But, for a child born in September 2002 ;

In Malaysia, in year 2011 : He is in Tahun 3

At International Sch Amsterdam : He is in Grade 2 (academic year 2010/2011)

At British School Netherlands : He is in Year 3 (academic year 2010/2011)

In Malaysia formal education begins at 7 years (6 to those born in December), but here in Netherlands and Britain, formal education begins at 5 years (4 to those born in August - correct me if I'm wrong) when children start Foundation 2.

The British Junior School starts with Foundation 1 (not compulsory), then Foundation 2, followed by Year 1, Year 2 and so on. And something else to bear in mind, classes here begin at 8.45 a.m. and ends at 3.15 p.m.

While Britain and Netherland begin formal education at 5 years (4 if you think about it), most of Europe countries begin formal education at 6 years while Scandinavian countries like Finland and Sweden begin their formal education when the child turns 7 !!! And yet, Finland is reported to be a global superstar in education terms and is consistently among the top performers. Finnish pupils not only begin education at age 7, but they also enjoy 11 weeks of summer holidays and yet they end up with the highest educational standards in Europe - source BBC news, February 2008.

It seems that English children are ploughing up through a fix curriculum while their continental counterparts are still playing in kindergarten pits or playing at home. It worths to note that England primary school children are subjected to more testing and assessment at an earlier age compared to other Western countries.

I suppose Malaysian education system are similar to the British, a lot of tests and exams.