A school is a public educational establishment designed primarily to offer learning venues and learning areas for children under the supervision of qualified teachers. In most countries, public schooling requires that children be enrolled in a school, where they receive regular education and training in subjects taught by experienced and qualified teachers. Most states have systems of publicly funded public elementary or secondary schools, and in these systems students progress from grade school to grades in various schools designated as part of the local school system. Students may take admission to any of these schools; however, all students must be enrolled in a school. All schools vary in terms of the levels of academic study, curriculum, and student-teacher ratio, and are administered by different school boards.
The majority of states require parents to enroll their children in a primary school before they attain the legal age of thirteen. A primary school offers children a start in basic education with the completion of an elementary unit, usually consisting of reading, writing, alphabet, and science units. A secondary school offers higher levels of education such as arithmetic, science, geography, and English; typically with the completion of either a high school or a college degree program. In the United States, private schools are the most common form of secondary schooling, especially in the suburbs of large cities.
Courses taught in primary schools generally include reading, writing, mathematics, history, English grammar, and foreign language; while courses for students in secondary schools typically include mathematics, science, and social science. Many colleges and universities offer programs for younger children in elementary teaching, and the degree programs offered by community colleges are often no broader than those offered at state universities. A few colleges have been established to train students for a number of vocations within the field of public work. The field of public work typically requires intensive study in the humanities and liberal arts, such as history, philosophy, and sociology, or a similar field of study.