ABOUT UNITED KINGDOM:

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or simply Britain, is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain (a term sometimes also loosely applied to the whole state), the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another state: the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea in the east, the English Channel in the south and the Irish Sea in the west.

EDUCATION IN UK:
In each country there are five stages of education: early years, primary, secondary, Further Education (FE) and Higher Education (HE). Education is compulsory for all children between the ages of 5 (4 in Northern Ireland) and 16; FE is non-compulsory, and covers non-advanced education which can be taken at further (including tertiary) education colleges and HE institutions (HEIs). The fifth stage, HE, is study beyond GCE A levels (and their equivalent) which, for most full-time students, takes place in universities and other HEIs and colleges.

RANKING:
Traditionally a high-performing country in international rankings of education, the UK has stagnated in recent years in such rankings as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests; in 2013, for reading and maths the country as a whole stood in the middle-rankings, a position that was broadly similar to three years before. Within the UK, Scotland performed marginally better than England; both were slightly ahead of Northern Ireland, and markedly ahead of Wales. However, these results contradict those of the education and publishing firm Pearson, published in 2014, which placed the UK in second place across European countries, and sixth worldwide; these rankings took into higher-education graduate rates, which may have accounted for the higher appearance than in PISA.

TOURISM IN UNITED KINGDOM:
The United Kingdom is undoubtedly the most popular holiday destination for young travellers from Worldwide and from Australia and New Zealand in particular.

LIST OF COUNTRIES IN UK: