Education Resource - Primary Education

Singapore rejoins UNESCO after 22-year absence


UNESCO Education for All (EFA) Goals
Goal 1 - Expand early childhood care and education
Goal 2 - Provide free and compulsory primary education for all
Goal 3 - Promote learning and life skills for young people and adults
Goal 4 - Increase adult literacy by 50 per cent
Goal 5 - Achieve gender parity by 2005, gender equality by 2015


Compulsory education
# Compulsory education should be up to Primary 6 as this is considered the minimum period of education for all Singapore children.
# Certain categories of children, e.g. those with special needs will be exempted from compulsory education.
According to the Compulsory Education Act, a child of ‘compulsory school age’ is one who is above the age of 6 years and who has not yet attained the age of 15 years.
other source



Personally, I would think that FREE education must include preschool education and special needs education. Such as:

Australia
In Australia, Primary School is generally for children aged 5-12. In South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland grade 7 is part of primary school; in other states it forms part of secondary education. In certain year groups, students in all schools take part in the National Assessment Programme (NAP).[3] The year levels:

United Kingdom
In the UK schools providing primary education in the state sector are known as primary schools. They generally cater for children aged from four to eleven (Reception to Year Six). Primary schools are often subdivided into infant schools for children from four to seven and junior schools for ages seven to 11. These subdivisions are also known as Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. (Excluding Scotland, where all from age 5-12 are catered for in the one institution.)

United States
In the United States, the term primary school is used in a general way to describe a school housing the primary grades, usually meaning kindergarten (ages five to six) to fourth grade, fifth, or sixth grade (ages 10 to 11), though this is more commonly referred to as an elementary school.

Scotland
In Scotland, education is divided into two stages: primary education and secondary education. Primary education is delivered almost exclusively through primary schools which offer education for pupils aged between 4 and 12. Children are entitled to pre-school education from their third birthday, and must enter compulsory education from the August after their 5th birthday.


source:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_school
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_stages
- http://www.waece.org/ingles/notes_unesco/brief31en.pdf