by Mark Hughes
Somewhere in the world, right now, students are hard at work in school. With over 190 nations spanning the globe’s 24 time zones, students and their academic years come in a variety of forms. Here’s a sampling of the typical school year in 13 nations throughout the world.
Australia
Students in Australia attend school for 200 days a year. Their school year lasts from late January to mid December. Since Australia is in the southern hemisphere, it experiences summer while it’s winter in the northern hemisphere. Summer vacation for Australian students is from mid December to late January. Their school year is divided into four terms, with each term lasting 9 to 11 weeks. Students then have two weeks of vacation between each term. The typical school day is from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and lunch is eaten at school. Students are required to attend school for at least eleven years, but they usually attend for twelve years. The average class size is eighteen students and there are about six computers per classroom.
School grades in Australia are called years. Kindergarten is the first year of formal schooling, followed by year 1 through year 6; secondary school is from year 7 to year 12. A 6 year old begins in year one, while an 18 year old finishes school by year 12. From year one to year six, students spend about 12 hours a week working on math and English. Many schools integrate subjects, meaning they combine two or more academic subjects. For instance, say your class is studying coral reefs. A non-integrated approach would have students study coral reels only in science class. An integrated method incorporates math, by taking measurements, for example, and language arts. Students would then use that information to write a report about coral reefs.
