Education Around the World
Impressive Stats:
- Singapore is considered the smartest country, but not without a price. Students in Singapore spend about 9.5 hours per week on homework!
- Finland has some of the smartest students across the globe, despite the fact that they have less than 3 hours of homework per week and schools give no exams and no grades.
- Costa Rica spends about 8% of GDP on education (compared to our 6.4%). Their reward is a 98% literacy rate for people ages 15 to 24.
- Russia averages only 470 instructional hours per year, compared to the international average of developed countries at 790 hours. Despite that, their literacy rates are 99.7%.
- US students spend between 900 and 1000 instructional hours in school each year, and in 2015, we got the best scores as a nation in 20 years.
- The high school enrollment rate in Latin American countries is 94.98%, which is 26% more than the global average. However, the high school graduation rate is only about 45% in Mexico.
Time Spent in School
- About 6 hours per day of instructional time is the international average.
- American students spend between 6 and 7 hours per day in school, for an average of 180 days per year.
- Brazilian students start school at 7 am but go home in time for lunch.
- French students go from 8:30 until 4:30, but with a 2-hour lunch break in the middle.
- British students go to school from about 9 am until about 3:30 pm.
- South Korean students have the longest school day, usually from 8 am until 4 pm, with higher grade students returning to school after dinner for another 3-hour study block.
- Most Mexican students attend school for just 4 hours a day, often working the morning and attending school in the afternoons.
Interesting Facts:
- Bangladeshi schools sometimes take place on boats.
- Chinese schools emphasize learning drills and memorization.
- Japanese schools have classes on moral topics such as compassion, diligence, and endurance.
- Most South African parents pay for their children’s primary and secondary education.
- French students get Wednesdays off each week but may have extra classes on Saturdays.
- 97% of US schools have at least one instructional computer and 78% of elementary school students regularly use a tablet at school.
- In 2014, nearly 30% of college students were enrolled in at least one online class.
