In France the system is 5 + 4 + 3 years then uni is 3 + 2 + 3 (as most European countries) or 2+3+3 in some cases

The years in elementary school aren’t too long, it’s usually 8h45-11h45 13h45-16h45 with a break around 10 and 15. We used to have school 4 days a week and 2/3 Saturdays mornings but they removed Saturdays a while ago

Then in middle school you start getting one teacher/subject. You get usually 30+ hours of classes per week in 4.5 days and since usually teachers don’t tell each other when they are doing tests or giving a lot of homework some weeks can be pretty easy and other weeks can be pretty hard (though if you’re a good student since there is no real competition you can just go with the flow and get passing grade without much effort)

As I said there isn’t much competition to get accepted in high schools because if you have decent grades you get in the high school linked to your middle school. If you want another you need to do something that you can’t do in the high school you should go to. For elementary school usually it’s the same and it’s really hard to get in a different middle school than the one you’re supposed to go in unless you go in private schools.

For high schools it’s more or less like middle school, though in the end you have an exam to prepare to finish high school. For higher education you mostly get accepted on the grades you had during high school. There is not really a competition because it’s more like having a good enough grades and not being well-ranked that counts (though there are some exceptions).

For higher education you can go for a 2 year diploma or go in more regular universities to get a bachelor (3 years) then a master (+2 years). University is often see in France as the easy way or the fail way because there are like no rules, the teachers don’t care about attendance at all and most people fail their first year. because they don’t come to class regularly

Then there is a particular French way which is preparatory classes. basically you spend 2 years of full time studying (almost 40 hours of classes each week and a lot of homework) to take exams and depending on how well you do in the exams you get accepted in some 3 years school that give you a master’s degree. These two years are usually pretty hard for most people and are probably close (and sometimes worse) than what Japanese students get through in their last year of elementary/middle/high school studying full time for entrance exams. I don’t know how it’s like in Japan but in France there aren’t that many different exams (5 that last one week each with all the subjects each week) and you apply at the same time for a lot of schools. Some exams let you apply to different kinds of school and some are much harder than some others.
I didn’t have to go through this myself because I used the sneaky way (some school let you do something close to the preparatory classes starting just after high school exams so if you keep decent grades during the two years you don’t have any final entrance exam to take) but my sister and some of my friends did and they said it was really two years where they didn’t have time for other things.
I hope that wasn’t too long/boring

In ireland I went to a private school specifically geared to university entrance, so hours were 9am to 9pm, but there was no uniform. But all the public schools have a uniform to apparently create equality and fairness, especially among people of different income backgrounds. My public school for Junior high was overly strict on uniforms, like only red scarves and navy shoes (blue doesn’t cut it). Also, public schools are same sex only, only private schools like mine are mixed since theres a strong catholic influence.

Japanese schools seem nice, from cute uniforms to lunch! We dont get lunch and uniforms are hideous, and theres no way we’d be allowed wear short skirts to school like Japanese girls.

A couple of things to point out: the opposite of unified in English is disunified, rather than ununified ;)

Also, I’m curious whether different parts of Canada require a different number of years in school? I myself did 10 years of elementary, 4 years of high-school and am in a 4-year university program. Hmm…

I really enjoyed the joke, so witty ^_^