United Kingdom Education

England has many prominent private schools, often founded hundreds of years ago, which are known as public schools or independent schools. Eton, Harrow, Shrewsbury and Rugby arefour of the better known. Most primary and secondary schools in both the private and state sectors have compulsory school uniforms Although the Minister of Education isresponsible to Parliament for education, the day to day administration and funding of state schools is the responsibility of Local Education Authorities. England's universities include someof the highest-ranked universities in the world; the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, the University of Oxford and University College London are all ranked inthe global top 10 in the 2010 QS World University Rankings.
The Northern Ireland Assembly is responsible for education in Northern Ireland though responsibility at a local level isadministered by 5 Education and Library Boards covering different geographical areas.
Scotland has a long history of universal provision of public education which,traditionally, has emphasised breadth across a range of subjects compared to depth of education over a smaller range of subjects at secondary school level. The majority of schools arenon-denominational, but by legislation separate Roman Catholic schools, with an element of control by the Roman Catholic Church, are provided by the state system.
The National Assemblyfor Wales has responsibility for education in Wales. A significant number of students in Wales are educated either wholly or largely through the medium of Welsh and lessons in thelanguage are compulsory for all until the age of 16. There are plans to increase the provision of Welsh Medium schools as part of the policy of having a fully bi-lingual Wales.