Compulsory education

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Compulsory education is education which children are required by law to receive and governments to provide. The compulsiveness is an aspect of public education. Homeschooling is typically an alternative to going to government-accredited public schools.

Compulsory education at the primary level was affirmed as a human right in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Many of the world's countries now have compulsory education through at least the primary stage, often extending to the secondary education.

1 History
2 Criticism
3 Extent
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

The Aztec are thought to have had the first compulsory educational system. All male children were required to attend school until the age of 16. ^[1]

The Education Act of 1496 in Scotland obliged the children of noblemen and freeholders to attend school.

In 1774 mandatory schooling was introduced in Austria^{[citation needed]} from which it gradually spread to other countries in the 19th century. It reached the American state of Massachusetts in 1852^{[citation needed]}, and quickly spread to other US states thereafter.

[edit] Criticism

Compulsory education has been criticized, most frequently by economists and libertarians.^{[citation needed]} These arguments can involve the view that compulsory education takes up a great deal of an individual child's time and is imposed on them without their consent or in regards to their own interests.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Extent

In Canada, compulsory education is set for ages 6 through 16. In Finland, it starts at the age of 7 (+/- 1 negotiable), and ends after graduation from comprehensive school at the age of 16, or at last after ten school years. In the United States, compulsory education is for students between the ages of six and fifteen. ^[2] In Scotland compulsory education begins between 4 and a half and 5 and a half; it extends until the age of 16.