[constant thinker]

At what age/grade in Canada do you guys graduate high school/middle school/grades over 8th?

My cousin from Canada is 17, but my mom said she was going to university. She won't be 18 until next year. I'm also curious about the the education system in other countries.

In the U.S. you go to Kindergarten at age 5 or 6 usually, 1st grade at 6 or 7, 2nd grade at 7 or 8, and so on. Regular school (before university) ends at 12th grade (senior year of high school) when your 17 or 18 usually. You then enter university as an 18 or 19 year old. We have elementary school, middle school, high school, then university (if you so choose). That's the public school system, some private schools go grades 1-6 = elementary school, grades 7-12 high school.

How does it go for other countries?

If you know of a different public education structure inside of the U.S. feel free to share.

[Donaldson Tan]

In Singapore, we enrol in kindegarten at the age of 5, then primary school at the age of 7. Primary schooling is 6 years long. Enrolment at secondary school begins at the age of 13 and it is 4-5 years long. By the time, we finish our secondary schooling, we will get a Cambridge-Singapore GCSE O Level certificate. Depending on your O level results, you will either enrol for 2-3yr GCE A level course or a 3yr diploma at a local polytechnic. Admission to the GCE A level course requires at least 6 Bs (B3s) for your GCSE O level results.

By the time, a student in Singapore completed his GCE or diploma, he is either 18 or 19. Male students (citizen) are required by law to serve a 2-year period in the armed forces, so he will be 20 or 21 years old when he enters university. Female and foreign students enter university in the year after they complete their GCE or diploma.

Local university admission requirements for local diploma holders are really anal. Most diploma holders enter the work force after they graduate from their polytechnic. Some enrol part-time degrees at local univerisites or via long distance education. Other diploma holders enter full time undergraduate study after working for a few years. Only a few (really few) diploma holders enter local university immediately after graduation from their polytechnics. These diploma holders must be within the top 5% of their cohort.

[Dan]

I think I started primary when I was 5. We had a first year called 'reception' and then years 1-6.

So you are 12 when you start secondary school
16 by the time you finish your GCSEs
Then A levels last 2 years, so you are 18 when you start uni (unless you take a gap year or got moved up or down a class) - that's England.

The system is set so that on the first day of every academic year, all the students in a given class will be the same age (provided they haven't been moved etc.)

[Borek]

Poland:

You start at the age of 6 with so called "0" class. Class "0" can be the final year at kindergarten (if you attend to) of first year at school.

6 years of primary school.

3 years of secondary school ("gimazjum").

Up to now everyone takes the same route. After secondary school there are different ways you can follow and - to be honest - I am not sure about details as it has all changed last few years and I am not tracing it. The one I am aware off (usually selected as leading to university education) is:

3 years of lycee that ends - at the age of 18 - with school leaving examination ("matura"). You may spend these three years in other school, no idea about the final exam then. Matura is more or less equivalent to British A-level.

From now on you can attend university - 3 years to BSc, 5 years to MSc (which for many years was the standard degree obtained at the end of university education). AFAIK you can't do PhD without MSc in Poland.

[constant thinker]

That's interesting. It seams the world is about +/- 1 year from start and graduation of required schooling. Then things change at the university level or like geodome, you have to serve your civic duty.

Someone told me in Germany it's similar in how they have to serve their civic duty after graduation.

Also in the U.S. (or atleast my state) you can drop out of high school at 16, which sadly happens quite a bit (my school has an 87% graduation rate and an 82% graduation on time rate, meaning you had the required credits by the end of your senior year of high school). Another school in the same district has a graduation rate of around 73%. My school is made up of a bunch of relatively rich kids and some poor kids with a few average kids (like me) in between as far as wealth goes.

[lemonoman]

Canada!

Things are crazy in my province (i.e. state), Ontario, because the educational system got switched a few years ago.  It used to be, you had to complete "Grade 13" to go to University, now it's just "Grade 12" (cuts costs ).  I was part of the group that had the Grade 13s from the year before, and the Grade 12s of that year, all coming into University at once.

Anyways, students born in September or after in the year won't have had a birthday before school starts, and could be as young as 17 starting university.  Most are 18 (born January to August) or 19 (took an extra year in highschool).

I know a guy who started university at 15, because he skipped two grades...he'll graduate at age 19 with an Honours Bachelor in Physics.  Smart guy.

[Donaldson Tan]

That's interesting. It seams the world is about +/- 1 year from start and graduation of required schooling. Then things change at the university level or like geodome, you have to serve your civic duty.

Civic duty is a nice way to describe compulsory millitary conscription. Many Singaporeans will tell you they think it is a total waste of time. The official term for it in Singapore is National Service (NS). Majority of the male Singaporeans who served NS thinks it is a complete waste of time, but this is not true for me. I learned how fragile life is, and how effective the sword is when the pen fails. NS perhaps can be viewed as an extension to academic education.

[Borek]

For many years 2 years military service was compulsory in Poland, but it was pushed away in time by education. As long as you were elarning you were not called for duty. That's why some man were going to universities, even if they were not in fact interested in degrees. Even with university degree you had to serve - but only for one year and as a cadet, not an ordinary soldier.

Right now it has changed a little bit - I think from the legal point of view military service is still compulsory, but there are ways of serving this time not in regular military units and there are semilegal ways to avoid service at all.