Education in Caphiria

Education in Caphiria is provided in public and private environments. By law, education is compulsory over the age of 3 and ends at 16. The Ministry of Education sets overall educational standards, though private schools are generally free to determine their own curriculum and staffing policies, with mandatory accreditation and regulation from the Ministry. This allows for more "creative" and "third wave" educational systems to have the chance to develop on top of the already established educational standards. The public education system in Caphiria is highly complex and segmented, operated jointly by provincial and local governments.

The education system is split into two: compulsory and non-compulsory education. Compulsory education consists of Children's School (discatorium) and Core Education (regulatorium), and non-compulsory education takes the form of secondary education (agnatumaticus) and the higher education of academies (academiae) or universities (universales).

Standard curriculums are arranged in 5 semesters lasting 9 weeks each and each semester has a different amount of vacation days: the first two semesters have 10 days each of vacation days, the third semester has 20 days; the fourth has 7 days, and the last semester has 23 days. A term is closed by testing students' knowledge of the compulsory material learned that term. Tests for the advanced courses can be taken anytime during the last two years of the core curriculum. The results of any tests taken by a student are merely used to show the school which area of higher education, if any, they should encourage for the particular student. Marks for compulsory courses are also used to distribute students evenly by aptitude across the different higher schools. There are no strict entry criteria and most students get into places of their choice.

Children's School
From age 3 to age 9, children are enrolled in discatorium (children's school). It is here that students are introduced to the first Caphirian educational philosophy, the Acelector-Magnis program. The program is based on the principles of respect, responsibility, and community through exploration and discovery through a self-guided curriculum. At its core is an assumption that children form their own personality during early years of development and are endowed with "a hundred languages", through which they can express their ideas. The educational curriculum is the same for all pupils, although one can attend a private or state-funded school, the subjects studied are the same (with the exception of special schools for the blind or the hearing-impaired).

The Acelector-Magnis philosophy is based upon the following set of principles: The Acelector-Magnis philosophy of teaching young children puts the natural development of children as well as the close relationships that they share with their environment at the center of its philosophy. In this approach, there is a belief that children have rights and should be given opportunities to develop their potential. Children are considered to be “knowledge bearers”, so they are encouraged to share their thoughts and ideas about everything they could meet or do during the day. “Influenced by this belief, the child is beheld as beautiful, powerful, competent, creative, curious, and full of potential and ambitious desires." The child is viewed as being an active constructor of knowledge. Rather than being seen as the target of instruction, children are seen as having the active role of an apprentice. This role also extends to that of a researcher.
 * Children must have some control over the direction of their learning;
 * Children must be able to learn through experiences of touching, moving, listening, and observing;
 * Children have a relationship with other children and with material items in the world that they must be allowed to explore;
 * Children must have endless ways and opportunities to express themselves.

Much of the instruction at discatori takes place in the form of projects where they have opportunities to explore, observe, hypothesize, question, and discuss to clarify their understanding. Children are also viewed as social beings and a focus is made on the child in relation to other children, the family, the teachers, and the community rather than on each child in isolation. They are taught that respect for everyone else is important because everyone is a “subjective agency ” while existing as part of a group.

Caphirian children can expect no longer than six hours in school per day, much of which is spent in supervised playtime outside or in a youth gym. Exercise is encouraged with competitive games and a variety of play structures. Fighting between kids is tolerated since serious injury is almost impossible and the parents are responsible for the actions of their children so the school is immune from litigation for anything done by other children. During meals, nature and history videos are displayed to familiarize students with such things. The central subjects of children's school are grammar, geometry, and ethics.

After their final session, children take a final ungraded exam (matura discatori) to graduate from the discatorium without pomp to a new method of instruction. The Acelector-Magnis philosophy has created a solid psychological and physiological basis for further education. The lax style of learning fades into compulsory classes and more academic material is introduced.

Core Education
The second and final phase of compulsory education is Core Education (regulatorium), covering age 10 to 16. In early core school, students will learn Caphirian history, basic geography, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, logic, basic chemistry, mechanics, electrostatics, music, ethics, cellular biology, basic micro and macro economics, epistemology and Latin reading, writing and literary analysis.

At age 10, students enter Grade I. Here students are given a basic education in language, mathematics, natural sciences, history, geography, social studies, and physical education. Some schools also have Cartadanian or Istroyan, musical arts and visual arts programs. After two years, students move onto Grade II, which is spent on physical and musical education. The curriculum is a simple progression from games to athletic training, such as long-distance running and wrestling, and musical training. By their final year, students should be able to run 5 km, lift 50 kg and play at least two instruments well. Athletic and musical training persist through the final core years, remaining an integral part of the education system until the age of 16, after which children have become citizens and may pursue health however they see fit. Opportunities to play music are ample in the final year of core school since those students can freely mentor younger students.

Science is a large educational component the core school, with exposure to how the natural world functions beginning as early as 10 with mechanical toys and demonstrations. These demonstrations and games become more personal with each passing year, with students learning about measuring units and then actual scientific knowledge. This knowledge builds into the foundation of the mathematics of motion (kinematics). Chemistry and biology are introduced in similar fashions, though later on than physics. By the time they graduate, students get how living things can be taxonomically categorized, have an intuition for the pH scale, grasp that everything is constantly chemically interacting with other things and know the animal body is a complex machine. Details are not given in the compulsory classes.

Midway through their core education, students: are well acquainted with arithmetic, understand basic geometry with some applications, have an intuition for the motion of objects in gravity (e.g. pendulums, rolling, bouncing, sliding), have rudimentary Latin writing skills for expressing ideas, can empathize with their fellow man, have a notion of duty to others, understand that other people are to be treated as ends not means, and are starting to familiarize themselves with variables. Caphirians recognize that these are skills that will be necessary for any functioning member of society - syntax, for expressing thoughts; mathematics, for managing money; and ethics, for cooperating with other citizens.

The lessons at the end of the core education are somewhat more liberal than the preceding years. Mathematics shifts focus to algebra but students are not taught how to solve algebraic problems. The basic theory of solving for a numerical value of a variable is taught at first then students are given one or more problems to solve individually each lesson. The system is designed to foster independent problem solving skills and avoid rote memorization. Moral lessons similarly shift to answering ethical problems. Students are presented with ethical dilemmas where they must evaluate what they should do. Like the algebraic problems, solutions are not given by teachers.

A wide variety of scientific information is available to most students in school libraries and by inquiring to science teachers to hear more. The understanding among lawmakers was that students do not learn well by compulsion and must be allowed to inquire out of interest. Having advanced knowledge, like that of calculus or organic chemistry, available but not forced onto students is seen by society as the best way to instruct the young. It is not until university, after the age of 17, that students learn the complexities of the sciences.

Grade VI
Once a student completes their final exam (matura regulatori) at age 16, they are technically adult citizens and are finished with compulsory education, and are given four options with how to continue forward: they may elect to enroll in advanced courses in calculus, international economics, Caphirian and international politics, anatomy, modern physics, industrial chemistry, biochemistry, metaphysics, manual work or other languages (declararimaticus); they may choose to continue into voluntary secondary education (agnatumaticus).; they may enlist into the Imperial Armed Forces to serve a mandatory lustum; or they may find an apprenticeship or join a guild. Both educational options are optional and add an additional two or four years respectively to the compulsory educational experience.

Advanced education
Advanced education (declararimaticus) provides an internationally accepted educational curriculum and qualification for entry into higher education and is recognized by many universities worldwide. The program and curriculum is run by an independent office called International Declarari (ID). The two-year curriculum is more challenging and lessons more aggressively paced than standard courses. Schools must be certified as a Declarari school from ID. Declarari students complete assessments in six subjects, traditionally one from each of the 6 subject groups.

In addition, they must fulfill the three core Declarari requirements - Extended essay (EE), Theory of knowledge (TOK), and Creativity, activity, service (CAS). Students are evaluated using both internal and external assessments, and courses finish with an externally assessed series of examinations, usually consisting of two or three timed written tests. Internal assessment varies by subject: there may be oral presentations, practical work, or written work. In most cases, these are initially graded by the classroom teacher, whose grades are then verified or modified, as necessary, by an appointed external moderator.

Students who pursue the Advanced diploma must take 4 subjects: one each from Groups 1–4, and either one from Group 5 or a permitted substitute from one of the other groups, as described below. Two subjects must be taken at Higher level (HL) and the rest at Standard level (SL). ID recommends a minimum of 240 hours of instructional time for HL courses and 150 hours for SL courses. While Declarari encourages students to pursue the full ID Advanced diploma, the "substantial workload requires a great deal of commitment, organization, and initiative". Students may instead choose to register for one or more individual ID subjects, without the core requirements. However, such students will not receive the full diploma.


 * Group 1: Language & Literature - Taken at either SL or HL, this is generally the student's native language, with over 80 languages available. There are many options: Language A/B, Literature A/B/C., and Language & Literature A/B; an interdisciplinary subject Literature and Performance can also be taken at SL. Language A focuses on the native language whereas Language B focuses on an additional language (SL or HL). Literature A focuses on the classics; Literature B's coursework is more rigorous and focuses on the study of two works of literature (although this is for comprehension rather than analysis and is only assessed through coursework); Literature C focuses on advanced methods of literary analysis across the four major categories - drama, poetry, fiction, and prose - as well as possessing a near-native level of fluency in the foreign language, and as such concentrated less on studying the actual language and more on the literature and culture of the countries where the language is spoken.
 * Group 2: Individuals & Societies - Humanities and social sciences courses offered at both SL and HL: Business Management, Economics, Geography, History, Information Technology in a Global Society (ITGS), Philosophy, Psychology, and Social and Cultural Anthropology and Global Politics. The course World Religions and the interdisciplinary course Environmental Systems and Societies are also offered at SL only.
 * Group 3: The Sciences - Five courses are offered at both SL and HL: Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Design Technology and Computer Science. The course Sport, Exercise and Health Science and the interdisciplinary courses Environmental Systems and Societies and Nature of Science are offered at SL only.
 * Group 4: Mathematics - Courses are Mathematics: Applications and Interpretation (AI) SL and HL and Mathematics: Analysis and Approaches (AA) SL and HL. AA Mathematics has an emphasis on algebraic methods and mathematical thinking, whereas AI Mathematics has an emphasis on modelling and statistics, with a focus on using technology to solve problems with real-world applications
 * Group 5: The Arts - Courses offered at both SL and HL: Dance, foreign languages, Music, Theatre, Visual Arts, and Film.

All subjects (with the exception of CAS) are evaluated using both internal and external assessors. The externally assessed examinations are given in May. Each exam usually consists of two or three papers, generally written on the same or successive weekdays. The different papers may have different forms of questions, or they may focus on different areas of the subject syllabus. For example, in Chemistry SL, paper 1 has multiple choice questions, paper 2 has extended response questions. Paper 3 focuses on the "Option(s)" selected by the teacher and data analysis questions. The grading of all external assessments is done by independent examiners appointed by ID.

Points are awarded from 1 to 7, with 7 being equal to A+, 6 equal to A, and so on. Up to three additional points are awarded depending on the grades achieved in the extended essay and theory of knowledge, so the maximum possible point total is 48. In order to receive an ID Advanced diploma, candidates must receive a minimum of 24 points or an average of four (or C) out of a possible seven points for five subjects. Candidates must also receive a minimum of 10 points from their Higher Level subjects and a minimum of 9 points from their Standard Level subjects. Additionally, candidates must complete all of the requirements for the EE, CAS and TOK.

Failing conditions that will prevent a student from being awarded a diploma, regardless of points received are: non-completion of CAS, more than three scores of 3 or below, not meeting the specific points required for Higher Level or Standard Level subjects, or plagiarism in addition to scoring higher than a score of 1 in any subject/level.

Secondary education
Secondary education is divided into three specialized tractum, or pathways: the tractus pacello is a mostly theoretical education, with a specialization in a specific field of studies (humanities, science, languages, or art); the tractus arbonam offers both a wide theoretical education and a specialization in a specific field of studies (e.g.: economy, humanities, administration, law, technology, tourism), often integrated with a three/six months internship in a company, association or university during the last semester. The third pathway is the tractus potentia, which offers a form of secondary education oriented towards practical subjects (engineering, agriculture, gastronomy, technical assistance, handicrafts), and enables the students to start searching for a job as soon as they have completed their studies. This pathway is popular for those who want to continue onto higher education but want to graduate a year earlier than normal.

Higher education
Higher education is done in academies (academiae) or universities (universales), whether one wants to receive an Academic Degree and become a Doctor (PhD) or not respectively. While attending core school is compulsory for all citizens, higher education can be avoided in order to take an apprenticeship in manual work. At this level, courses are distinguished into the classical branches of philosophy. Graduating as a doctor in ones field is not only prestigious but beneficial for one's career as well. Modern lawyers, senators, medical doctors, scientists, generals and economists are almost unanimously doctores. There's no distinct school system for medicine or law as these already have academies like other subjects.

University
Entry into a universalis (university) often follows the core level of education - for students who do not want to enter an apprenticeship or are unable to join the academies. Here students can be instructed in courses that are within the classical branches of Caphirian philosophy. The result of 4-5 years in the university system - whose courses are homogeneous across the country - is a Universal Degree. A single degree declares all the fields of knowledge in which the receiver is fluent because of university education.

The Academies
High intellectualism in the Imperium is monopolized by the Academies (Academiae). Leading the Academies of the Imperium are the Five Academies: First, the Academia Imperia Scientiae represents the scientific community; second, the Academia Augustana represents the legislators, lawyers and ethicists; third, the Academia Teslae represents the mathematicians and logicians; fourth, the Academia Lingua represents the linguists; and fifth, the Academia Galena represents practitioners of medicine. Since they are immersed in the work of educating people, the Academies have the power to decide national educational policy in their capacity as the Department of Upper Education.

The reward for an academic education is becoming certified as a Doctor (PhD) of a particular field. A doctorate is a requirement for careers in medicine, law, politics, teaching, research and commanding military office. These are the jobs that Caphirians believe need expertise to be properly performed.