I don't think I'll ever understand...

the French and the British...

I thought I had it all nailed down neatly.
France = Roman Empire = Centralisation
Britain = Germanic tribes = Devolution.

Then a friend failed a music exam and as I commiserated with him I said, "Yes, but it doesn't count for anything anyway does it. It's not nationally recognised."

Then it hit me... How come that :

in France we have a highly centralised education system with one national authority that takes care of everything, but for music exams the music schools and even the individual music teachers do what they want : 1 piece / 3 pieces; one style / mix of styles, sight-reading / no sight-reading, anything is possible...

while :

in Britain we have a highly centralised music exam system with one national authority (OK, two) that takes care of everything, but for GCSE exams we have examination boards with exams that differ ?

Baffling !

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