They vary with differences in developmental level and characteristics of nations. However, they will tend to become more and more similar toward the new common objectives mentioned above. The organizational structure of elementary, secondary and higher education in Japan and other countries is indicative of national educational objectives. The following figure and tables are illustrative. The U.S.A. has a single-truck school system open to all from the primary school through the university.
Japan has an educational system of almost the same pattern.
In other countries, the double-truck system still obtains, under which specialization in separate schools for professional education begins either in the upper level of elementary education or at the secondary education level. The Educational Reform Plan in 1959 provided that the first two-year course of junior high school is devoted to the observation of pupils' aptitudes and counseling as to the selection of advanced courses. In France, the same division of pupils into two groups is made when pupils reach 11 years of age, i.e., the end of the 5th grade of elementary school. Pupils who proceed to junior high school are chosen by tests from among those who desire to do so. In the U.S.S.R., the eight years of elementary education are common to all.