New Stages in Education

Education, from childhood to adulthood, is usually organised in different stages. Traditionally, we speak of primary education and secondary education as two separate stages. Postsecondary education, i.e. university or the equivalent, is called the tertiary stage while school for the youngest children is called the pre-primary stage. Thus the sequence of four educational stages is reflected historically by the four types of school organisation. These terms are not only used in the context of comparative education, but even in the day-to-day context of school planning and school administration. They form the basis of teacher training, teacher allocation and teacher responsibility. Indeed, they are so much a part of everyone's consciousness that we even refer to the physical structure as a 'primary school' if that is where primary education is carried out, and as a 'secondary school' if the provision is secondary education. Johan Amos Comenius (1592-1670) was one of the first to categorise schooling and upbringing into stages systematically. According to Comenius a complete education in culture and society consisted of four stages

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• Education and childlessness

  Open Access•Jan M Hoem, Gerda Neyer et al.•Demographic Research•2006

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