Did you know...
- Boston has the highest concentration of higher ed institutions in the nation. There are over 100 colleges and universities in the Greater Boston area. It also has seven R1 "very high research activity" universities: Harvard, MIT, Boston University, Brandeis, Boston College, Northeastern, and Tufts. This R1 concentration, too, is a record.
- The City Montessori School in Lucknow, India, is the school with the largest student body. It has a whopping enrollment of over 55,500 students. Students in China, meanwhile, spend an average of three hours a night on primary and secondary school homework. Head north to Finland and students have on average only three hours of homework a week!
- The oldest continually operating higher ed institution in the world is the University of al-Qarawiyyin. It was established in Fez, Morocco, in the year 859. That makes it over 1,160 years old! It was founded by a woman, Fatima al-Fihri, and became one of the leading spiritual and educational centers in the Muslim world. It joined the modern Morocco university system in 1963.
- Did you know that illiteracy and crime are correlated? One study found that up to two-thirds of students who could not read with proficiency by the end of 4th grade ended up on welfare or in jail. One of the most effective anti-crime efforts is to fund quality educational programs.
- Among industrialized countries, French students are at school the least! A normal school week is 4.5 days, compared to 5 on average. It's common to take a mid-week break by having Wednesdays off. Typically, they are in school 162 days a year, compared to 185 on average for everyone else.