PRO-PRIMARY AND PRIMARY EDUCATION.

Some children between two and five receive edu­cation in nursery classes or in infants classes in primary schools. Many children attend informal pre-school play-groups organised by parents in private homes. Nursery schools are staffed with teachers and stu­dents in training.

There are all kinds of toys to keep the children busy from 9 o'clock in the morning till 4 o'clock in the afternoon while their parents are at work. Here the babies play, lunch and sleep. They can run about and play in safety with someone keeping an eye on them.

Most children start school at 5 in a primary school. A primary school may be divided into two partsinfants and juniors

There is usually no written timetable. Much time is spent in modelling from clay or drawing, reading or singing. By the time children are ready for the junior school they will be able to read and write, do simple addition and subtraction of numbers.

At 7 children go on from the infants school to the junior school. This marks the transition from play to "real work". The children have set periods of arithmetic, reading and composition which are all Eleven Plus subjects. History, Geography, Nature Study, Art and Music, Physical Education, Swimming are also on the timetable.

Pupils were streamed according to their abilities to learn into A, B, С and D streams. The least gifted are in the D stream. Formally to­wards the end of their fourth year the pupils wrote their Eleven Plus Examination. The hated 11 + examination was a selective procedure on which not only the pupils' future schooling but their future careers depended. The abolition of selection at Eleven Plus Examination brought to life comprehensive schools where pupils can get secondary education.