Education and Health Care in Australia

While Americans and Australians share a great deal in common, there are also a lot of differences between life in the two countries. I have covered some of these differences in two previous articles. Here I will be focussing on the differences in education and health care services.

Children begin what we call primary school but Americans call elementary school when they are somewhere between four and a half and six years old. This depends on where a child's birthday falls in regard to the cut-off dates set by the individual states/territories. Also, some parents choose to send their children a year later than they might start so that they are more mature and can cope better. Children can start what is called pre-school in some states and kindergarten in others between the ages of three and a half and five. This is a part-time program where they attend for something like three half-days or two full days a week and mostly spend their time in creative play. It is not mandatory and the cost is covered by the government in some states/territories but not others.

The first full year at school is called by various names in the different states/territories. The names include prep, kindergarten and reception. This can be quite confusing - particularly when kindergarten can be either a pre-school program or the first year at school, depending where you live. Years 1 - 5 are consistent across the nation. In most states/territories Year 6 is also part of the primary school program. However, there are a couple of states where it's part of high school.

In most states/territories Years 7 - 12 are what we simply call high school. In Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory, however, Years 11 and 12 are at separate colleges. There is no such thing as "junior high" or "middle school" - and students in years 9-12 are not called freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors. They are simply referred to as year 9, year 10, year 11 or year 12 students.