Career Guidance & Job Opportunities

The Danish Education System offers a wide range of education on all levels also for people with an international background.

Basic education

In Denmark there is nine years of compulsory education for everyone. Upon the parents' request, a child must be accepted into the first grade in the calendar year in which the child turns 6 before 1 October. In addition there is pre-school class which the municipalities are required to offer and 10th form, both of which are optional. The municipal school system offers mother tongue instruction for children from EC/EEA countries, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Also, the local authorities have an option to offer mother tongue instruction in other languages. A number of international schools offer instruction in English, German or French.

Upper secondary education

After the primary and lower secondary school a wide range of upper secondary education programmes are available. The upper secondary schools (gymnasium) prepare students for higher education while other upper secondary education programmes place emphasis on technical or business oriented subjects. There are many opportunities for academically oriented foreigners who may, for instance, opt for an International Baccalaureate or an International Business Baccalaureate.

Higher education

Foreign students may be admitted to Danish higher education either as guest students, international students or as regular students along with the Danish applicants.

Higher education comprises the universities offering research based undergraduate and graduate programmes as well as PhD programmes; the so called university colleges providing medium-cycle higher education by offering 3-4 year professional bachelor’s degree programmes; and business and technical colleges and academies offering short-cycle higher education programmes lasting 2 years. Furthermore the private sector offers a range of educational programmes e.g. in banking. To benefit from the last mentioned programmes good Danish skills are essential. Read More >>

The Czech education system is based on a long tradition beginning in 1774, when compulsory school attendance was instituted. Currently, there are all types of education – starting with preschool, through elementary, secondary, university and postgraduate and ongoing education.

Preschool education

Children may enter this first level of education before they begin the compulsory school attendance, as a complement to family-based education. This purpose is served by creches and nursery schools. These institutions are intended to raise elementary habits of learning and also provide social contact among children. Both are important for children's smooth transition to elementary school.

In cooperation with parents and educators, kids learn how to think logically and discuss, training their memories and exercising their imaginations. At the same time, these skills help to evaluate their intellectual and educational levels before entering elementary school.

Elementary education

Children usually gain elementary education at elementary schools. Compulsory school attendance takes nine years, usually from the age of 6 till the age of 15. However, children may receive this level of education at various types of schools that can also utilize different types of educational programs.

These are the types of schools that provide children with elementary education:

• Elementary school (state or private): Children pass the entire nine-year compulsory school attendance, divided in two cycles.
• Grammar school: Within the eight-year or six-year grammar schools, pupils can complete elementary education and continue education at the midlevel.
• Conservatory: Eight-year dance conservatories allow students to complete elementary education and continue education at the midlevel.
• Special school: Children with some disability may be integrated in special classes of elementary school, or they can attend a special school.
• Special and assisted schools are intended for children with mental disabilities.
  In recent years, the system of home education has also been experimentally tested.

The following are among the elementary types of education programs for compulsory school attendance:

Elementary school

• General school
• National school

• Waldorf schools
• Montessori nursery and elementary schools
• Montessori elementary schools level II

Secondary education

• Secondary education when student gets a report on a final exam after one to two years of study.
• Secondary education with vocational certificate – completed after two to three years of study by a report on a final exam and a vocational certificate stating professional capability, e.g. in the area of crafts. Graduates in there subjects usually do not continue in the classical education system and rather go to work in the selected branch.
• Secondary education with a leaving examination, when usually after four years of study a student gets a report on a leaving examination. A leaving examination consists of several smaller exams – an exam of the Czech language and other exams according to study specialization and also the student's choice. After 2008, the leaving exam should consist of two parts, common (state) and profiling (specific for individual types of schools). The objective is to provide better comparability of this exam among different schools.
• Grammar schools
• Secondary vocation schools
• Secondary apprentice training centers

Tertiary education

• Bachelor's: Usually a three-year course of study in which students get an elementary survey of highly specialized areas. Students can either leave their studies after these three years, or they can complete it by means of a leaving exam including the defense of a bachelor's thesis, or may continue into the master's program, where they can achieve a narrower specialization.
• Master's: Operates either as five-year (or, more precisely, six-year), or as two-year programs following bachelor's studies. During the course, students gain both a basic survey of highly specialized subjects and a certain grade of specialization. The program culminates with students taking required state leaving exams and defending their diploma thesis.
• Engineering: Relates to technical and economic fields.

It is provided for children aged between three years and five years and eight months. Attendance is compulsory for children aged between four years and eight months and five years and eight months.

Attendance at a private nursery school costs from €120 to €343 per child per month; the cost at the state schools is lower. There are also state and private child care centres for children up to three years of age.

Primary education

Primary education is provided free of charge at state schools for children aged between five years and eight months and 11 years and eight months. Age is the only criterion for the admission of children to primary education. From the 2006-2007 school year proof of pre-school attendance (from four years and eight months to five years and eight months) is a condition for enrolment in primary schools. The school year is divided into three terms of three months, with attendance on five days of the week. Primary education is also provided by English-language, French-language and Russian-language private schools.

Lower secondary education

Lower secondary education is provided free for children aged between 11 years and eight months and 15 years of age. Children are admitted to lower secondary education on the criterion of age and subject to possession of a primary school leaving certificate. The school year is divided into three terms of three months, with attendance on five days of the week. Lower secondary education is also provided by English-language and French-language private schools.

More than 30 private primary and secondary schools (Greek-language, English-Language, French-language and Russian-language) operate with Ministry of Education and Culture approval. The cost of attendance is between €4,286 and €6,343 per year.

Upper secondary education

Upper secondary education is provided free of charge for children aged between 15 and 18 years of age. At this level, too, the school year is divided into three terms of three months, with five-day attendance. Pupils who wish to be trained in a technical occupation can attend a technical school. There are also private English-language and French-language upper secondary schools.

Children who do not speak Greek are given special lessons in the language to make it easier for them to join state schools at which attendance is compulsory and free.

State university

Cyprus has three state university institutions: the University of Cyprus, the Technology University and the Open University. There is also a large number of private tertiary-level colleges. The Ministry of Education and Culture has approved twenty-one private tertiary schools and evaluates and certifies the academic titles of those schools every two years. There are also state tertiary-level schools such as the Higher Technical Institute, the Forestry College and the Higher Hotel Institute. Read More>>

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Education in Cuba

Education in Cuba has been one of the great successes of the revolution in cuba. Before the revolution in Cuba, one quarter of the population in Cuba received no education and was illiterate; however, since the revolution in Cuba, literacy levels have soared due to comprehensive education introduced to Cuba. Today thanks to the comprehensive education system in Cuba the literacy rate stands at 95%. Cuba offers a comprehensive education system that is one of the best in the world. All education in Cuba is free to its citizens.

Rural education in Cuba

Prior to the revolution in Cuba very few inhabitants of the rural areas of Cuba received any sort of education. After the revolution, the education of the rural masses of Cuba became a top priority, and for eight months all schools in the city were closed down and teachers students were sent into the rural areas en masse to provide education to rural communities of Cuba. Today in Cuba, special rural schools have been set up to cater for the rural communities of Cuba. These schools are located amongst the local communities making it easier for children to receive their education while living at home. In addition, the education provided at these schools in Cuba takes into account the rural lifestyle of the students and provides time for them to work on agriculture in the fields at the same time as receiving an education.

Further education in Cuba

University education is free to all students in Cuba. The education provided at these universities in Cuba is of a high standard and the teachers are often Doctorate degree holders. Many students from other countries come to receive their further education in Cuba due to the cheaper costs and good standards of education on offer. University graduates in Cuba are expected to serve two years community service in the discipline in which they received their education, usually in poor rural communities in Cuba, and for a very low wage. Read More>>

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Practically all children attend Quranic school for two or three years, starting around age five; there they learn the rudiments of the Islamic faith and some classical Arabic. When rural children attend these schools, they sometimes move away from home and help the teacher work his land.^[1]

France established a system of primary and secondary schools based on the French model, which remains largely in place. Comoran law requires all children to complete eight years of schooling between the ages of seven and fifteen. The system provides six years of primary education for students ages six to twelve, followed by seven years of secondary school. In recent years, enrollment has expanded greatly, particularly at the primary level. About 20,750 pupils, or roughly 75 percent of primary-school-age children were enrolled in 1993, up from about 46 percent in the late 1970s. About 17 percent of the secondary-school age population was enrolled, up from an estimated 7 percent fifteen to twenty years earlier. Teacher-student ratios also improved, from 47:1 to 36:1 in the primary schools and from 26:1 to 25:1 in secondary schools. The increased attendance was all the more significant given the population's high percentage of school-age children. Improvement in educational facilities was funded in 1993 by loans from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the African Development Bank. Despite the spread of education, adult literacy in 1993 has been estimated at no better than 50 percent.^[1]

Comoros has no university but instead has post-secondary education, which in 1993 involved 400 students, is available in the form of teacher training, agricultural education training, health sciences, and business. Those desiring higher education must study abroad; a "brain drain" has resulted because few university graduates are willing to return to the islands. Teacher training and other specialized courses are available at the M'Vouni School for Higher Education, in operation since 1981 at a site near Moroni. Few Comoran teachers study overseas, but the republic often cannot give its teachers all the training they need. Some international aid has been provided, however, to further teacher training in the islands themselves. For example, in 1987 the IDA extended credits worth US$7.9 million to train 3,000 primary and 350 secondary school teachers. In 1986 the government began opening technology training centers offering a three-year diploma program at the upper secondary level. The Ministry of National Education and Professional Training is responsible for education policy.^[1]

As elsewhere in Comoran society, political instability has taken a toll on the education system. Routinely announced reductions in force among the civil service, often made in response to international pressure for fiscal reform, sometimes result in teacher strikes. When civil service cutbacks result in canceled classes or examinations, students have at times taken to the streets in protest. Students have also protested, even violently, against government underfunding or general mismanagement of the schools: the World Bank stated in 1994 that the quality of education resulted in such high rates of repetition and dropouts that the average student needed fourteen years to complete the six-year primary cycle.^[1]

New Developments in Colombia�s Higher Education

Consuelo Uribe
Consuelo Uribe is associate professor and dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Javeriana University in Bogota. Address: Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Edificio Manuel Brice�o, 3er Piso, Bogota, Colombia. E-mail: curibe@javeriana.edu.co.

Access to higher education by Colombia�s youth population is lagging behind by international and regional standards. The country�s 22 percent enrollment rate does not meet the country�s needs in terms of technological and economic development. A large majority of students in higher education are enrolled in university-type institutions on average in five-year programs, while technological and technical institutions only have a fifth of all students.

Higher education enrollment rates in Latin America are on average 25 percent, which is largely not up to the level in other developing areas of the world, such as the so-called Asian Tigers. Colombia�s enrollment rate is lower than the regional average, lagging behind neighboring countries such as Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and Peru.

Colombia�s mediocre rate of access to higher education has been blamed for much of the country�s faulty economic performance, producing a working population with low skills, inadequate connection of its population to the global world, poor scientific and technological training, low productivity and participation in research and development, and scant occupational mobility.

The Public-Private Mix
A unique characteristic of Colombia�s educational system is the composition of public and private enrollments at the different levels of education. Whereas most primary (81 percent) and secondary (72 percent) students attend public institutions, 70 percent of students attend private higher education institutions. This contrast has to do with higher education institutions� role as relatively good businesses and public institutions having their growth restricted due to fiscal constraints.

This trend has serious consequences concerning higher education access for graduates of public secondary schools. Public universities (both national and regional) admit only about 15 percent of the new students. In national universities, there are always more candidates than places. Instead of moving to towns with extra places available at public universities, most students apply to private institutions with a range of academic standards, prices, and traditions.

The differences in public and private enrollments between basic and higher education in Colombia are related to the constraints of the public offer. The limited access to subsidized (public) higher education means that the students who fail to gain admission and cannot afford to pay tuition opt out of the educational system.

The Evaluation System
In contrast to the generally grim situation of its higher education system, Colombia is a Latin American country with one of the more complete and rigorous systems of government-led evaluation and accreditation schemes.

Evaluation through achievement tests was first instituted in 1970 for students graduating from secondary schools. The mandatory ICFES exam-named after the institute that designs and administers the tests-forms the main basis for determining admission to higher education institutions. Students from private, urban, and day schools consistently produce higher scores.

Evaluation of both public and private primary and secondary students (third, fifth, seventh, and ninth graders) was first introduced in 1990. This is called the SABER test, and it is designed and administered by ICFES. These tests have confirmed the higher performance of students from private, urban, and day schools.

A final exam (ECAES) for university undergraduates was introduced in 2000 for a few programs and became mandatory in 2003 for students in most professional programs. The ECAES scores are generally high at public national universities, with a few private elite universities matching or outdoing them.

The previously mentioned divergence between public and private enrollments at secondary and postsecondary levels is at odds with the configuration of test scores: mediocre or low test scores prevail for students from public institutions at primary and secondary schools and high scores for students at a number of public universities. This is a peculiar phenomenon in Colombia. It means that many graduates of private schools with the necessary skills to attend competitive public universities are being admitted there, displacing those from public schools who cannot afford to pay private-university tuition costs. No wonder disparate income levels are an acute problem in the country. See More>>

Education System Overview>>

EDUCATIONAL POLICY IN CAMEROON

The Cameroon educational system may be structured as here below:

PART I: KINDERGARTEN

It is unclear if early childhood education is compulsory in Cameroon. However, parents who can afford to do so generally send their children to kindergarten at about the age of three.

In the Anglophone sector of the country the kindergarten is known as a "nursery school" and in the Francophone sector it is called "l'ecole maternelle". Children attend these schools for about two or three years, until the age of five or six, when they are deemed ready to start attending elementary or primary school (" l'ecole primaire", in French). The vast majority of these "nursery schools" in Cameroon are privately owned, but there are also a few run by the Government.

PART II: PRIMARY EDUCATION

The duration of primary education is usually seven years The approximate age for graduation from primary school is twelve. This is the only part of a child's education that is compulsory in Cameroon, and most pupils tend to be a little more than 12 years of age by the time they graduate. The number of primary schools across the country is almost evenly divided between

Government-owned ones and those run by various religious denominations (e.g. Catholic, Presbyterian, Baptist, etc in the Christian parts, and Koranic ones in the Islamic parts).

One significant difference is that there are no tuition fees at the Government schools..

In the Anglophone sector, primary education is split up into seven successive classes and at the end of that period the students must take and pass some general exams in order to graduate. These are the First School Leaving Certificate and the Common Entrance Examination. In addition, there are technical, vocational and professional exams that allow students access to specific career paths.

PART III: SECONDARY EDUCATION

After primary school, there are at least three main further channels students can pursue, depending primarily on their family's financial circumstances, but also on the results obtained at the general exams cited above. These are:

1) Secondary/ Grammar Schools. The principal operators in this sector are the Government, the religious denominations, and a growing number of private entrepreneurs. Here again, tuition at the Government secondary schools (GSS) is either free or costs considerably less than at the other types of school. Selection into the GSS is based on the result obtained at the Common Entrance Exam. In the English-speaking parts, secondary education at these grammar schools generally takes five years, from ages 12 to 17. Students specialize in the arts and sciences, and at the end of the program they must take the General Certificate of Education (G.C.E.) exam, at the Ordinary

("O") level. If they pass, they qualify for admission into a high school, involving two more years of study, at the end of which they take the G.C.E. exam at the Advanced ("A") level. Success at this last exam opens doors to universities and other institutions of higher learning. By this time the students are aged about 18 or 19 years.

2) Technical/ Vocational Schools. In this sector the Government and private business people appear to be the main operators. (It is not clear why the religious missions shy away from this area.As the name suggests, the primary purpose of these schools is to train students in the technical/ technological fields, or to prepare them for specific vocations. The duration of the vocational education is generally four years, after which students must take some professional exams. In the old days they took the City & Guilds exam from London, but that is now being replaced by the "Certificat d'aptitude professionnelle" (CAP) exam from Yaounde. Success at either of these exams gets the student into a technical high school or another specialized institution, with a decent chance of securing employment upon completion.Incidentally, these two categories described above are generally known in Cameroon as colleges.Many of the colleges are boarding schools, which mean students leave home at a tender age to go and live on campus.

3) Apprenticeships/ Institutes:. Students with poor results at the end of their primary education,or ones whose parents cannot afford to send them to college, end up learning a trade locally.For instance, they can sign up at the appropriate place to learn how to become a motor mechanic,a carpenter, a tailor, a bricklayer, etc. There are also some institutes where a person can learn how to become a secretary, a typist, a clerk, etc. The duration of the training varies from one field to another. Visit More >>

Government High School, Widikum Cameroon

Burma once had a strong and expanding education system. Since the current military regime staged a coup in 1988, the system has deteriorated to the point where post-secondary education is in effect non-existent. Nearly all of Burma's universities and colleges have been mostly closed since the student-led protests in 1988, in which thousands of non-violent demonstrators were gunned down in the streets.

Poverty

The greatest barrier of access to primary and secondary school education is poverty. Cuts in government spending for education has meant an increase in costs to families in the form of a series of taxes and donations paid to the education department, the school, and teachers.

Ethnic Conflict

Children in ethnic minority conflict areas are even less likely to have access to school, as physical survival and the struggle for food security takes priority. Since the SPDC does not respect even basic human rights, it is not surprising that it does not provide for education. In the best-case scenario, a school may exist, but it will likely be run by SPDC government-sanctioned teachers who seek to instill "Burman" values in their students. The other option is the establishment of local community schools which must rely on self-help measures to survive. Often only the military-sanctioned schools are allowed to remain open, while the non-Burman community schools are shut down. This is part of the junta's tactics of "Burmanizing" some of the ethnic minorities by making it difficult for them to retain their own language and culture. More Info >>

TEACHER TRAINING CENTER FOR BURMESE TEACHERS

Teacher Training Center for Burmese Teachers (TTBT) is a non-profit educational institute operating independently in exile, currently based in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand since 2001. It seeks to improve the quality of education in refugee camps, ceasefire regions, remote areas of Burma and migrant workers in Thailand, by training new teachers, promoting active learning, critical thinking and democratic practice in schools, providing professional development opportunities for existing teachers, and developing educational policy and practice. TTBT is launching a three-year project from 2008 to 2010 called, "Prospect Burma Education Project." The components of this project are:

§ Teacher Preparation and Professional Development

§ Education Leadership and School Management

§ Education Policy and Curriculum Development

§ Skills Development for Refugees and Migrants

§ Adult (Migrant) Learning Center