• Most systems of education worldwide are predicated on the notion
that learners enter, progress through and exit from ‘grades’ alongside a
group of peers. Learners who fail to be promoted from grade to grade
become grade repeaters and join a group of learners in the previous
grade. Grades correspond closely with the age of the student and
usually comprise students who share birthdays within one calendar
year. In systems where, for various reasons, the age of entry of
learners varies by more than one year, learners move through the
system with peers who entered the first grade within the same calendar
year. Each grade group comprises one or more classes of learners,
depending on the number of learners. Each class is usually taught by a
single teacher at any one time. These classes may be referred to as
monograde classes.
• In some primary school systems the same teacher teaches all subjects
to his/her class throughout the school year; in others different teachers
teach different subjects. In some systems the same teacher will move
with his/her class group from one grade to the next. In others the
teacher is identified with a particular grade.
• Most systems of education prescribe national curricula for teachers
and learners that are ‘graded’. Text books and other learning
~Dr.Smiley~
(Jane)
