Primary education: Difference between revisions

{{for|Descriptions of different implementations| List of primary education systems by country}}

The [[International Standard Classification of Education]] considers primary education as a single-phase where programmes are typically designed to provide fundamental skills in reading, writing and mathematics and to establish a solid foundation for learning. This is [[International Standard Classification of Education#Level 1|ISCED Level 1]]: Primary education or first stage of basic education.{{efn|'''Basic education''':corresponds to the first 9 years of formal schooling and is made of two levels distinguished as Levels 1 and 2.

The ISCED definition in 1997 posited that '''primary education''' normally started between the ages of 5 – 8, and was designed to give a sound basic education in reading, writing and mathematics along with an elementary understanding of other subjects. By 2011 the philosophy had changed, the ''elementary understanding of other subjects'' had been dropped in favour of "''to establish a solid foundation for learning''".<ref name= 2011en/>

The ages cited cover a rapidly developing phase of child development. This is studied in the discipline of [[developmental psychology]], which among other things attempts to describe how children learn.

In Great Britain, reception, the first year of primary school, is part of the [[Early Years Foundation Stage|Early Year Foundation Stage]].

The [[Philosophy of education]], of teaching and learning, has, over the millennia, occupied many great minds. It attempts to say what children should be taught.

In pre-agrarian cultures, children learnt by following their instinct to play. There was no need for enforced education.<ref name="PT"/>

In agrarian cultures, the skills of agriculture, husbandry, bartering, and building skills can be passed on from adults to children or master to apprentice.

Societies agree on the need for their children to learn and absorb their cultural traditions and beliefs and they attempt to do this informally in the family, or by gathering the children together and employing one adult to handle the task, a tutor. This worked well for the landowners, but the children of the landless would be employed from the age of seven as servants. In one source from the turn of the 15th century, a French count advised that nobles' huntsmen should "choose a boy servant as young as seven or eight" and that "...this boy should be beaten until he has a proper dread of failing to carry out his masters orders." The document listed chores that the boy would perform daily, and that the boy would sleep in a loft above the kennels in order to attend to the hounds' needs.<ref name="PT"/><ref name="Orme">{{cite book |last1=Orme |first1=N |title=Medieval children |date=2001 |page=315}}</ref>

Religious communities become providers of education and defined the curriculum. Learning to recite passages from their holy text is a priority. For their society to advance, the oral tradition must be superseded by written texts; some students must go on and write down the passages. Monasteries students needed to read out what is written in the religious language and not just the vernacular. This led to formal education in madrassas and schools. Martin Luther declared that salvation depends on each person's own reading of the Scriptures.<ref name="PT">{{cite web |last1=Gray |first1=Peter |title=A Brief History of Education |url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-learn/200808/brief-history-education |website=Psychology Today |access-date=8 March 2021}}</ref>

In mid 17th century America, Massachusetts became the first colony to mandate schooling for this purpose. Beginning in 1690, children there and adjacent colonies learned to read from the [[New England Primer]], known colloquially as "The Little Bible of New England"<ref name="PT"/>

In England, 1870 was the beginning of compulsory state education.<ref name="Shaw">{{cite web |last1=Shaw |first1=Susan |title=History of Education |url=https://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/41969_9780857027382.pdf#page=3&zoom=auto,-74,496 |access-date=8 March 2021 |page=5}}</ref>[[Elementary school (England and Wales)|Elementary schools in England and Wales]] were publicly funded schools which provided a basic standard of education for children aged from six to 14 between 1870 and 1944. These were set up to enable children to receive manual training and elementary instruction and provided a restricted curriculum with the emphasis on [[Reading (process)|reading]], [[writing]] and [[arithmetic]] ([[the three Rs]]). The schools operated on a [[Monitorial System|monitorial system]], whereby one teacher supervised a large class with the assistance of a team of monitors, who were quite often older pupils. Elementary school teachers were paid by results. Their pupils were expected to achieve precise standards in reading, writing and arithmetic such as reading a short paragraph in a newspaper, writing from dictation, and working out sums and fractions.<ref name="Gillard2">Gillard D. [http://www.educationengland.org.uk/history/chapter02.html "Towards a State System of Education"]. In: ''Education in England'', 2011 http://www.educationengland.org.uk, accessed 20 November 2013.</ref> To achieve this a dual education system was initiated consisting of both voluntary  denominational schools and non-denominational state schools (Board schools) to supplement rather than replace schools already run by the churches, guilds and private individuals or organisations.<ref name="Shaw"/>

Before 1944 around 80 per cent of the school population attended elementary schools through to the age of 14. The remainder transferred either to secondary school or junior technical school at age 11. The school system was changed with the introduction of the [[Education Act 1944]]. Education was restructured into three progressive stages which were known as primary education, [[secondary education]] and [[further education]].<ref>Peter Anthony Newsam, 'Elementary school', ''Microsoft Encarta'' 2004 edition (CD-Rom), 1993-2003.</ref>

====Timeline of the 20th century English Education====

* 1912 - [[Maria Montessori]] publishes The Montessori Method

* 1915 - John and Evelyn Dewey publish [[School of Tomorrow]].

* 1918 - Fisher Education Act ends all fees for elementary education and raises school leaving age from 12 to 14.

* 1919 - The Burnham Committee introduces national pay scales for elementary teachers.

* 1923 - [[Jean Piaget|Piaget]] publishes The Language and Thought of the Child.

:        [[A S Neill]]’s opens [[Summerhill School|Summerhill]]

* 1944 - Elementary education split by age into Primary and Secondary. Tripartite system with an eleven plus.

* 1955 - The last gas lamps are removed from London schools

* 1957 - Britain’s first school TV are broadcast by Associated Rediffusion in May,  

* 1958 - BBC schools TV broadcasting

:        A S Neill’s Summerhill published.

* 1963 - London and Manchester end 11-plus.

* 1967 - The [[Plowden Report]] advocates expansion of nursery schooling.

* 1968 - The [[Newsom Report]] on public schools calls for integration with state schools.<ref name="TES">{{cite web |title=Timeline: A history of education |url=https://www.tes.com/news/timeline-history-education |website=Tes |access-date=8 March 2021 |language=en}}</ref>

# the biological model of intellectual development -this could be regarded as an extension of the biological process of the [[adaptation]] of the species, showing two on-going processes: assimilation and accommodation.

# the elaboration of the logical model of intellectual development, where he argued that intelligence develops in a series of stages that are related to age and are progressive because one stage must be accomplished before the next can occur. For each stage of development, the child forms an age-related view of reality.

Using this framework, the child's staged development can be examined. [[Cognitive development#Lev Vygotsky's theory|Lev Vygotsky's theory]]<ref name="bioBook">Yasnitsky, A. (2018) [https://www.routledge.com/Vygotsky-An-Intellectual-Biography/Yasnitsky/p/book/9781138806740 Vygotsky: An Intellectual Biography]. London and New York: Routledge [http://individual.utoronto.ca/yasnitsky/texts/Yasnitsky_2018_Vygotsky_bookPreview.pdf BOOK PREVIEW]</ref> is based on social learning, where a MKO (a more knowledgeable other) helps them progress within their ZPD ([[zone of proximal development]]). Within the ZPD there are skills that the child potentially could do but needs to be shown so they can move from yearning to independent proficiency.<ref name="bioBook" /> The assistance or instruction becomes a form of [[Instructional scaffolding]]; this term and idea was developed by [[Jerome Bruner]], David Wood, and Gail Ross.<ref name="Scaffolding">''Zone of Proximal Development'' and ''Cultural Tools Scaffolding, Guided Participation'', 2006. In ''Key concepts in developmental psychology.'' Retrieved from Credo Reference Database</ref> These are in the realms of the:<ref name="NIH1">{{cite web |title=School-age children development: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia |url=https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002017.htm |website=medlineplus.gov |publisher=NIH |access-date=18 September 2019}}</ref>

The [[United Nations]] [[Millennium Development Goals|Millennium Development Goal 2]] (2002) was to achieve [[universal primary education]] by the year 2015, by which time their aim was to ensure that all children everywhere, regardless of race or gender, will be able to complete primary schooling.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/education.shtml|title=United Nations Millennium Development Goals|website=UN|access-date=2017-05-23}}</ref>

Due to the fact that the United Nations specifically focused on [[Sub-Saharan Africa]] and [[South Asia]], as they are both home to the vast majority of children out of school, they hypothesized that they might not have been able to reach their goal by 2015. According to the September 2010 fact sheet, this was because there were still about 69 million school-age children who were not in school with almost half of the demographic in sub-Saharan Africa and more than a quarter in Southern Asia.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/MDG_FS_2_EN.pdf|title=GOAL 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education|website=UN|access-date=2017-05-23}}</ref>

In order to achieve the goal by 2015, the United Nations estimated that all children at the official entry age for primary school would have had to have been attending classes by 2009. This would depend upon the duration of the primary level, as well as how well the schools retain students until the end of the cycle.

The gender gap for [[Education for All#World Education Forum (Dakar, Senegal, 2000)|children not in education]] narrowed. Between 1999 and 2008, the number of girls not in education worldwide had decreased from 57 percent to 53 percent, but in some regions, the percentage had increased.<ref name="autogenerated182" />

According to the United Nations, there are many things in the regions that have already been accomplished. Although enrollment in the sub-Saharan area of Africa continues to be the lowest region worldwide, by 2010 "it still increased by 18 percentage points—from 58 percent to 76 percent—between 1999 and 2008." There was also progress in both Southern Asia and North Africa, where both areas saw an increase in enrollment, For example, In Southern Asia, this had increased by 11 percent and in North Africa by 8 percent- over the last decade.{{Citation needed|date=March 2017}}

Major advances had been made even in the poorest of countries like the abolition of primary school fees in [[Burundi]] where there was an increase in primary-school enrollment which reached 99 percent as of 2008. Also, [[Tanzania]] experienced a similar outcome. The country doubled its enrollment ratio over the same period. Moreover, other regions in Latin America such as [[Guatemala]] and [[Nicaragua]], and [[Zambia]] in Southern Africa "broke through the 90 percent towards greater access to primary education."<ref name="autogenerated182" />

Education systems that promote [[education for justice]], that is, respect for the [[rule of law]] (RoL) together with international human rights and fundamental freedoms strengthen the relationship between learners and public institutions with the objective of empowering young people to become champions of peace and justice. Teachers are often on the front line of this work and, along with families, play a formative role in shaping children's attitudes and behaviours.<ref name=":0" />

[[Global citizenship education]] provides the overall framework for the approach to the RoL. It aims to empower learners to engage and assume active roles, both locally and globally, as proactive contributors to a more just, peaceful, [[Toleration|tolerant]], inclusive, secure and [[Sustainability|sustainable]] world.<ref name=":0" />

* [[The New England Primer]] 1620–1720

== Sources ==

==Notes==

 

 

==Bibliography==

* ''India 2009: A Reference Annual (53rd edition)'', New Delhi: Additional Director General (ADG), Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India.

*{{cite web |title=Organisation of Primary Education |url=https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/content/organisation-primary-education-49_en |website=Eurydice - European Commission |language=en |date=10 October 2017}}