The following vocabulary is useful for understanding and discussing types of school and qualification.
Types of schools
- Boarding school – where the students live, eat and sleep during the school term
- Private school – where parents have to pay for their child to enrol
- Public school [US English] – a school which is free and paid for by the government
- Public school [UK English] – an exclusive, expensive school, run independently
- Co-education – where male and female students study together (also referred to informally as a co-ed school)
- Single-sex school – where only male or only female students attend
Types of education
- Primary education
- Secondary education
- Tertiary education (also referred to as Higher education) – this is the first level of schooling that is not compulsory (you don’t have to go). This includes universities and colleges
Types of certification
- A certificate – issued for a short course
- A diploma – issued for a course that is shorter than a degree
- A degree – issued by a university at the end of longer course of study
- A masters (degree) – issued by a university when the students has completed further study beyond a degree (often in a more specialised field than a degree)
- A doctorate – this is the highest level of study issued by a university