ABSTRACT
British education operates on three levels: schools, higher education and further/ adult education. Schools are divided into state (maintained from public funds) and independent (privately financed) sectors (the latter mainly in England). But there is no common educational organization for the whole country and England/Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland have somewhat different school systems. To simplify matters, this chapter concentrates on the largest school unit, that of England and Wales, with comparative references to Scotland and Northern Ireland. Further/adult and higher education have similar structures throughout Britain and are mostly state-funded. The individual countries of the United Kingdom have significant degrees of independent self-government in educational matters at all these levels.
