Shetland Education
Shetland schools are well funded and have a proven record of attaining high standards. There are primary schools throughout the islands to cater for pupils of age between five and eleven, with some areas also having junior high schools to educate children up to the age of sixteen. The main secondary school - the Anderson High School, in Lerwick - takes pupils from the ages of eleven to eighteen from all over the islands. Most secondary school pupils go on to study at university, for which they have to go to mainland Scotland, or elsewhere.
International Links
Shetland is, in some ways, remote from the rest of the United Kingdom, but this is more than offset by the cosmopolitan outlook of the schools. Shetland schools participate in many exchange schemes giving Shetland pupils the opportunity to experience life in other parts of the globe and allowing students from elsewhere the chance to live in Shetland. There are currently links with Japan, South Africa, Germany, the Czech Republic, to name but a few.
Links:
- The Global Classroom
- "The history of the Global Classroom partnership goes back to 1988 when the Anderson High School from Shetland Islands established its link with Gymnázium Zlín in the Czech Republic. They established mutual cooperation based on both short- and long-term student exchanges and throughout the successive years enabled many students from both schools to meet and learn about people from the other side of Europe. During the next few years, the Anderson High took the initiative and kept forming similar partnerships with other schools in Europe as well as in South Africa and Japan."
- The Learning School
- "Conducting and promoting school self-evaluation where student stakeholders are key participants and contributors".
Further Education
Shetland also has two colleges of further education. The Shetland College, based in Lerwick, offers courses in various subjects, such as business and information technology, as well as traditional subjects related to textiles and crafts. The North Atlantic Fisheries College, in the village of Scalloway, focuses on training and research in the fisheries industry, and attracts students from all over the world.
