Total Number of Countries Ranked: 125 Period: 1997 Average Public Expenditure on Education as Percent of GNP by Region Africa . . . . . . . . . 4.36% East & South Asia . . . . . . 3.76% Europe . . . . . . . . . 5.69% Middle East . . . . . . . . 4.39% North & Central America . . . . 4.65% Oceania . . . . . . . . . 6.35% South America . . . . . . . 4.01% Southeast Asia . . . . . . . 3.…
The island of Saint Helena is 1,200 miles from the southwest cost of Africa in the southern Atlantic Ocean. The educational system there follows that of the United Kingdom, as the island is a British Dependent Territory. The academic year is broken up into three terms, and the primary language of instruction is English. Education is free and mandatory for children between the ages of 5 and 15…
The first organized system of education in Saint Lucia emerged after this eastern Caribbean colony achieved independence in 1838. The Anglican, Catholic, and Methodist churches were largely responsible for these early schools. Eventually, the churches began working in conjunction with the government to oversee education in Saint Lucia. Because schools residing on church grounds and managed by…
The archipelago, or island group, known as Saint-Pierre and Miquelon is an overseas territory of France located in the northern Atlantic Ocean about 16 miles from the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. Residents are French citizens. Education is modeled after the traditional French system, it is free and compulsory for children between the ages of six and sixteen. The primary language of instruct…
After the arrival of the white man, the history of education in St. Vincent and the Grenadines was inextricably bound up with the other Anglophonic people of the Caribbean region—including the Bahamas (where Christopher Columbus first made landfall), Trinidad, Jamaica, and Tobago—and England herself. This still holds true; in the year 2000, Queen Elizabeth II was the nominal …
The Independent State of Samoa, located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, comprises nine islands that are volcanic in origin. The capital is Apia and is located on Upolu. The government is described as being a constitutional monarchy, and Samoan and English are the official languages. As of July 2000, approximately 179,466 people were in the country, and the literacy rate was 97 percent. In 190…
The smallest republic in the world, San Marino was founded in 350 A.D. According to the 1997 Information Please Almanac, St. Marinus and a group of Christians first settled it. The San Marino constitution provides for a parliamentary form of government; the Parliament has 60 members and has legislative and administrative powers. Compulsory education in San Marino begins at the age of 6 and co…
The small island of Sao Tome was discovered between 1469 and 1472, along with its smaller sister island Principe, by Portuguese navigators. However, Principe was first successfully settled in 1500. As settlers discovered the great abundance of sugar, the Portuguese crown soon took over in 1522. The Portuguese then started to bring many African slaves to the plantations. As two new cash crops…
Seychelles is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean made up of about 115 islands, most of which are uninhabited. With an area of 455 square kilometers, Seychelles is about 2.5 times the size of Washington, DC, and is the second smallest country in Africa. The country has a population of approximately 80,000 people with an average life expectancy of nearly 70.5 years. The inhabitants are Seychell…
When Slovakian citizens gain access to the Internet, they will greatly increase opportunities for informal education. The extent of the influence of the Internet in Slovakian education is yet undetermined. In the capital of Brataslava, the Open University of Great Britain has an established outlet. A second distance learning institution, this one from the United States, City University regist…
Situated in the Southwest Pacific, about 1,200 miles northeast of Australia, the former British colony became an independent parliamentary state and a member of the Commonwealth in 1978. Prior to 1974, education was provided mostly by subsidized Christian mission schools, then the local authorities assumed responsibility. The Provincial Government Act of 1981 created nine provincial governme…
Tokelau consists of three atolls—Atafu, Fakaofo, and Nukunonu—located in the middle of the South Pacific with a population between 1,700 and 1,800 people. Declared a British Protectorate in 1889, Tokelau was transferred under New Zealand administration in 1925. The church established the first institutionalized schools in the 1860s. The system was reviewed in 1997, and most of t…
The Kingdom of Tonga is located in the central South Pacific, east of Fiji and south of Samoa, and comprises more than 150 islands. Tonga is the only remaining Polynesian monarchy, and it has a population of 110,000 citizens (2000 estimate). Tongan, universally spoken, is a dialect of Polynesian; English, which is taught as a second language in schools, is used mainly for business. Wesleyan m…
In early 2001 President Niyazov announced a cutback of 10,000 positions in education.
The Turks and Caicos Islands is a group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean near the southeastern Bahamas. As a British territory, the educational system of Turks and Caicos is based closely on the British model, and the primary language of instruction at all levels is English. Because residents are widely scattered among the island system consisting of the Caicos Islands and the Turks Islands, …
Tuvalu has a geography of nine coral islands spread over ten square miles in the southern Pacific Ocean. This geography has been a major factor in the limited development of their educational system. Although nearly 40 percent of Tuvalu's residents live on Fanafuti, the island that serves as the nation's capital, the other residents are scattered among the eight remaining atolls…
An unincorporated territory of the United States since 1917, when it was bought from Denmark to help protect Panama Canal shipping lanes, the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) is an Americanized locale east of Puerto Rico comprising 3 principal islands and 65 smaller ones. Its 110,000 inhabitants, mainly English speakers of African descent, are 90 percent literate. Spanish, used by some 14,000 resid…
de Suficiencia Escolar Para Continuar Estudios, which certifies their preparation for secondary education.
The Republic of Vanuatu (formerly New Hebrides) comprises approximately 70 islands in the South Pacific and is located west of Fiji. Vanuatu's population of 189,618 people (in 2001) includes 94 percent Melanesian and 4 percent French. The British and French jointly governed Vanuatu before it achieved independence in 1980. This dual governance created diverse educational systems that ut…
The Holy See, the national entity that is located in what is usually referred to as Vatican City, may be most easily defined as the central government of the Roman Catholic Church. The physical location of this ancient walled enclave is only .44 square kilometers. The total population of Vatican citizens can fluctuate between 400 to approximately 900 residents, with about 3,000 lay peopl…
Wallis and Futuna is an archipelago, or group of islands, in the southern Pacific Ocean. It became an overseas department of France in 1959. At that time, the nation's schools, which had previously been operated by Roman Catholic missionaries, were placed under the control of the French Ministry of National Education. Based closely on the French model, education in Wallis and Futana i…
Weastern Sahara is either a country unto itself or a part of a kingdom, depending on whom is asked. The entire land has been under the direct control of the Kingdom of Morocco since 1979; it was known as Spanish Sahara until 1975 when Morocco took over the northern twothirds of the former colony and Mauritania took the southern one-third. Mauritania withdrew in 1979, leaving Morocco in comple…