Types of education are commonly divided into formal, non-formal, and informal education. Formal education takes place in education and training institutions, is usually structured by curricular aims and objectives, and learning is typically guided by a teacher. In most regions, formal education is compulsory up to a certain age and commonly divided into educational stages such as kindergarten, primary school and secondary school. Conformal education occurs as addition or alternative to formal education. It may be structured according to educational arrangements, but in a more flexible manner, and usually takes place in community-based, workplace-based or civil society-based settings. Lastly, informal education occurs in daily life, in the family, any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts may be considered educational, whether unintentional or intentional. In practice, there is a continuum from the highly formalized to the highly in formalized, and informal learning can occur in all three settings. For instance, homeschooling can be classified as conformal or informal, depending upon the structure.
Regardless of setting, educational methods include teaching, training, storytelling, discussion, and directed research. The methodology of teaching is called pedagogy. Education is supported by a variety of different philosophies, theories and empirical research agendas.
There are movements for education reforms, such as for improving quality and efficiency of education towards relevance in students' lives and efficient problem-solving in modern or future society at large, or for evidence-based education methodologies. A right to education has been recognized by some governments and the United Nations. Global initiatives aim at achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 4, which promotes quality education for all.
Formal education occurs in a structured environment whose explicit purpose is teaching students. Usually, formal education takes place in a school environment with classrooms of multiple students learning together with a trained, certified teacher of the subject. It can be subdivided into various categories or levels. The International Standard Classification of Education was created by UNESCO as a statistical base to compare education systems. In 1997, it defined seven levels of education and 25 fields, though the fields were later separated out to form a different project. The current version 2011 has nine rather than seven levels, created by dividing the tertiary pre-doctorate level into three levels. It also extended the lowest level to cover a new sub-category of early childhood educational development programs, which target children below the age of three years.
Education designed to support early development in preparation for participation in school and society. The programs are designed for children below the age of three. This is level 01. Preschools provide education from ages approximately three to seven, depending on the country, when children enter primary education. The children now readily interact with their peers and the educator. These are also known as nursery schools and as kindergarten, except in the US, where the term kindergarten refers to the earliest levels of primary education. Kindergarten provides a child centered, preschool curriculum for three- to seven-year-old children that aim[s] at unfolding the child's physical, intellectual, and moral nature with balanced emphasis on each of them.
In India, for example, compulsory education spans over twelve years, with eight years of elementary education, five years of primary schooling and three years of upper primary schooling. Various states in the republic of India provide 12 years of compulsory school education based on a national curriculum framework designed by the National Council of Educational Research and Training.
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