A Comparative Study of the Education Systems in England and Ireland

This report provides a comparative analysis of the education systems in England and Ireland. It begins with an introduction to both systems, highlighting key aspects such as primary, secondary, and higher education structures. The report then delves into a detailed comparison, exploring similarities and differences in curriculum, age groups, and government influence. The analysis covers key stages in England (KS1-KS4) and the different levels of education in Ireland. The report also discusses factors that affect the education systems in both countries. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings, emphasizing the unique features and commonalities between the two systems. The report also focuses on the differences in the age at which education starts and the level of government control. The report highlights the similarities in student subject choices and graduation ages.

Comparative
Education and
Related Issues

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Introduction of report and justification of the choices...........................................................3
Similarities and difference between England & wale's education system and Ireland education
system.....................................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Education term refers to the public, or private schooling, and more commonly to
kindergartens through the high schooling programs. This report is based on education system of
England and education system of Republican of Ireland. This report will provide clear
introduction of both the country's education system and how their education works in their
country. This report will analyse the similarities between the England education system and
Ireland education system of children of age group 5-16 years. It will explain how education
system of the England run and differs from that of Ireland's education system. This report will
also provide factors which affect their education system.
MAIN BODY
Introduction of report and justification of the choices
Every country has its own education system and lots of differences in delivery of
education services. There are some countries where education system is unique and better from
others in their own way. For example, England and wales are UK based countries so both have
their own polices and rules which makes their education system different from that of Ireland.
They have different education system.
England & Wales Education System – According to (EDUCATION SYSTEM IN
ENGLAND AND WALES: SELECTED ISSUES - Miruć A. 2014), In the past year of, this
country education development was very low, since the church in England plays fundamental
role. Primary schools were introduced by the church in 1870 in which local education was
strictly corporated with the church (Baily, Shah and Call-Cummings., 2016). The Government of
the England began to support the proper development of the education. After 1902, school
boards were replaced by the local authority in the England which is still in use. Modern
education in England refer to the education act 1944. Young students and children are educated
according to their requirement which is connected with their skills, ages, abilities in order to
secure their mental and physical development.
Nursery education or pre primary education was recognized as very important sector in the
whole process of the education. Children of age group 5-11 are subjected to primary education
while those in age group 11-16 years receives education under secondary curriculum. According
to the authority's guideline, one of the first step toward the schooling is nursery. When they reach
to the age of 5 years, children in the England & Wales reach to the period of the compulsory

schools till the age of 16. In the age of 11, pupils are subjected to the National curriculum
assessment in the other countries but in the England & Wales they are considered as the main
education system. Full time education is necessary for children with the age of 5 and 18. England
& Wales education divided into the main 4 key stages which are marked according to children'
age group. KS1 is for the children age between 5 and 7 years, KS2 stage is for children who are
in the age between 7 and 11 year old. KS 3 is for 11 to 14 years old children and end stage is
KS4 which is the last stage and for 14 to 16 year old children.
Ireland Education system –
In Ireland the educational improvement and curriculum changes are regulated by
National council for curriculum assessment (NCCA). The key emphasis of this institute is to
empower children and teachers. With this aim in Ireland, teachers are also required to maintain
Report card templates for the primary schools so that progress of children can be recorded and
made easier (Georgakis and Graham., 2016). The Ireland education system is highly influenced
by the historical factors and thus, teaching policies are described by cultural flash points. These
cultural flash points paramount in alteration of world perspectives, different values and
resonating assumptions.
Ireland education system is divided into several levels which are known as primary or
first level education, secondary level, third level education and further adult education. There is
also provision of special need education for the disabled children or those children who are
different from natural children. In Ireland, education is compulsory for children of age group 6-
16 years or until the completion of secondary level education. The pre-school education is given
by childcare providers which are privately funded. It helps them out in providing qualitative and
effective education to all children. ECCE (Early childhood care and education) scheme which is
being developed and provided by government. As per this scheme, children are being given free
education in the early childhood or to children of pre-school age group. The main aim of
providing free education is to give opportunities to all standards of children to get primary
education and having basic knowledge of words.
Irish school curriculum is child centred and until age of 6 they are not required to attend
school. Primary schools are stated funded, but they are owned by religious communities.
Secondary level education in Ireland has three year junior cycles which is followed by a two or

three year cycles depending upon transition year. The third level education in Ireland consist of
various sectors such as technological, university and college education. Several programmes are
being offered by universities which includes: The degree programs, doctorate levels, master and
bachelors programs.
After third level education, students in Ireland can also opt for the adult and further
education or training programs which is not included element of third level system. It includes
vocational training opportunities scheme, basic education, literacy programs, evening adult
programs and programs in Youth reach. For the disabled children, Ireland educational system has
special provisions such as special classes within mainstream education or mainstream classes
with additional support and special schools for disabled learners. This shows that education
system of Ireland is effective and concerned with providing educational opportunities to all types
of children.
In the primary school the main objective of schools is to develop essential skills,
understanding and ability to competences among pupils. There are some subjects which are
taught by teachers in the Ireland Primary schools which include: general studies, their official
language, art, mathematics, other foreign languages, sports and music etc. Teachers in primary
schools also teach about media, health, values education etc. It shows that education system is
not about teaching basic and common subjects but also providing knowledge of each field.
Higher education under the basic law, enjoy the autonomy to manage the awarding of the
scholarship (Richardson and et.al., 2016), researches and teaching activities independently. Third
level education institutes in the Ireland country provide the higher level and professional level
education. Institution which comes under the third level are recognized institutions and students
need score high market to take admissions and most of the students from other country come in
Ireland to take education in those institutes. There are some professional level institutions are
Theological colleges, Music and arts colleges etc.
Similarities and difference between England & wale's education system and Ireland education
system
Main aim of all the countries in the world is to provide better knowledge and education to
students. They find different ways to educate their people. Proper knowledge is not just reading,
calculating and writing. It is important for students to take practical knowledge and

understanding of the history of the whole world. It is important for students to learn about the
biology, chemistry and also about learning of creative subjects like arts, sports and music. Each
and every country has their own thoughts about education, and they implement different
education system for their people. In Ireland country, education system is compulsory for
students age of 6, they start with the groundsheet, till the age of 16 years old. They study till this
age. In the age of 16, they finish 9th grade in their school. The general education of the student
start in the early age with kindergarten but it is not mandatory so, students and parents have to
pay for their child. Parents have to decide that their child should attend kindergarten or not, it
totally dependeds on parents otherwise they can avoid sending their child to the Kindergarden.
Kindergarten are places where children enjoy and make new friends. After this stage main
education starts and it is important for every child to take part according to the Ireland education
polices. After completing age of 6 children have to attend elementary school which has grade 1
to 6. All the tough subjects are almost same in the every country. For important subject, they
have different teachers but for other subject which are easy they have only 1 teacher. When
students finish their 4th class then their teachers suggest them a school according to their skills
and their performance. Teachers give suggestions to the parents abut their child. Students who
have average abilities sent to the Vocational-oriented Huptschule, here also teachers will teach
them same subjects but the pace will be slow so students can understand. These schools are
compulsory for the 9 years in these schools students can finish their 9th grade, and they can
finish their secondary educations, but should enrol to the vocational school mixed with
apprenticeship. Realschule are the schools where students who have higher ability, those students
sent to these schools to finish their 5 to 10 grade. And if we talk about Gymnasium students
complete 5 to 13 th grade depending on the which state they go to the school (Shultz., 2016).
Here teachers prepare students for the universities. Here they contain two different language, and
they learn about history and mathematics etc.
Higher education in Ireland is for every student and it is totally depended on the students
that in which field they want to go, if we talk about the England education system it is different
from the Ireland education because children' start their education from 5 to 16, but there are
some children who go to the Pre- schools if their parents are interested. In Ireland educational
system, there are different schools for students but in British school, they all can study in the
same schools. In a same school children move to the secondary school, and they call it middle

school. Student study between the age of 6 to 11 and in the end of their schooling they get one
certificate which shows that they have done their secondary education. Students have to choose
their subjects but there are two subjects which are obligated, mathematics and English. Students
after the middle class have two choices vocational track and academic track, most of the students
stay in the school, so they can get A- level which is important for them to enter the universities
(Wiseman, Davidson and Stevens-Taylor, 2016). They can be done in the sixth from the college
or otherwise they have an offer from the school for comprehensive.
Differences after the analytical have got that students education the England that at the
age of 4 to 5 and in Ireland age of 6. Another difference is from the government influence, in
England all institutions and schools are controlled and regulated by England government but in
Ireland every state has its own education system.
Similarities we have found that each of the system have choices for the students to select
their own subjects, and they have different ways to complete their education in both Ireland and
England. Students graduation in the both country on the age of 14 which is similar in both the
education system.
CONCLUSION
As per the report it has been analysed that education system of England and education
system of Ireland have some unique as well as similar features. This report has provided clear
introduction of both the country's education system and explained that how their education
system. Education system of a country has significant impact upon the development of children
as well as future of the nation. This report has analysed the similarities between the England
education system and Ireland education system. It has been explained how education system of
the England run and how Ireland's education run and how they both are different. This report has
also provided factors which affect their education system.

REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Baily, S., Shah, P. and Call-Cummings, M., 2016. Reframing the center: New directions in
qualitative methodology in international comparative education. In Annual Review of
Comparative and International Education 2015 (pp. 139-164). Emerald Group Publishing
Limited.
Georgakis, S. and Graham, J., 2016. From Comparative Education to Comparative Pedagogy: A
Physical Education Case Study. International Education Journal: Comparative
Perspectives.15(1). pp.105-115.
Richardson, J. and et.al., 2016. Including sustainability issues in nurse education: A comparative
study of first year student nurses' attitudes in four European countries. Nurse education
today.37. pp.15-20.
Shultz, L., 2016. Understanding the internationalization of education and its demand for a
business of knowledge: Emerging issues and discussions in Canadian comparative and
international education. In Annual Review of Comparative and International Education
2015 (pp. 73-80). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Wiseman, A. W., Davidson, P. M. and Stevens-Taylor, C., 2016. A synthesis of published
comparative education research, 2014–2015: Further data for reflection in comparative
and international education. In Annual review of comparative and international education
2016 (pp. 1-23). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
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