Re: OT: School systems

On Sun, 2003-04-13 at 08:39, Garth Wallace wrote:
> daniel andreasson wrote:
> > Garth Wallace wrote:
> >
> >
> >>Where I come from, junior high is two years, and middle school comes
> >>right before that. Kindergarten (grade 0) through 3rd grade are
> >>elementary school, 4th through 6th grade are middle school, 7th and 8th
> >>are junior high, and 9th through 12th are high school.
> >
> >
> > Just to clear up the Swedish school system:
> >
> > Age 7-9 : lågstadiet 'low stadium'
> > 10-12 : mellanstadiet 'middle stadium'
> > 13-15 : högstadiet 'high stadium' i.e. approx. junior high
> > 16-18 : gymnasiet, which is approx. like high school
In Victoria, we have
3-year old Kinder/Pre-school: not a part of school. Entirely optional.
More like playgroup without parents around. I include it only because of
the clash with American kinder.
4-year old Kinder/Pre-school: as above.

Grade Prep (4 or 5 yrs) to grade six/year six (10/11 yrs): primary
school.
Year seven (11/12 yrs) to year twelve (17/18  yrs): secondary school,
high school, secondary college (all synonymous). The last two years are
the VCE years and are optional, but most people go.

> > You graduate in June so half of the people have turned 19
> > by then. And it's possible to start school at age 6. And
> > that's about it.
Our years do the sensible thing of co-inciding with the calendar year,
but you still get some people 17 and some 18 when they finish. One
graduates from university, not from high school.

> > University is of course free.
>
> You're saying that just to make me jealous, aren't you? I'm still paying
> off my blasted student loans.
No doubt. I'm going to have to find a country that doesn't have tax
agreements with Australia and move there. Any good suggestions? (I have
a strong suspicion the US don't; my Aunt lived there until last year,
and has only begun paying back her HECS[2].) (We pay for university
through the tax system. I incurred a ~$5000 tax debt on 1 April, though
I don't have to pay it back till I can afford to, based on the
Government's idea of afford, and it doesn't incur interest... (But I'll
incur another ~$5000 on the 1 September, 1 April 2004, 1 September 2004,
and so on for four years).) Alternatively, I could just be dole[3]
bludger[4] for the rest of my life, and never pay tax let alone HECS :)

[2]: Being the Higher Education Contribution Scheme.

[3]: Money the government gives to people unemployed.

[4]: being lazy; living off another's income

Tristan.