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The American educational system is based on the idea that as many people as possible should have access to as much education as possible. This fact alone distinguishes the U.S. system from most others, since in most others the objective is as much to screen people out as it is to keep them in. The U.S. system has no standardized examinations whose results systematically pr students from going on to higher levels of study, as the British and many other systems do. Through secondary school and sometimes in post-secondary institutions as well, the American system tries to accommodate students even if their academic aspirations and aptitudes are not high, even if they are physically (and in some cases mentally) handicapped, and even if their native language is not English. The idea that as many people as possible should have as much eductaion as possible is, of course, an outcome of the Americans’ assumptions about equality among people. These assumptions do not mean that everyone has an equal opportunity to enter Harvard, Stanford, or other highly competitive post-secondary institutions. Admission to such institutions is generally restricted to the most academically able. The less able can usaully matriculate in a post-secondary institution, as the Malaysians observed, but one of lower quality. As of March 1982, only 3 percent of all Americans aged 25 or more had completed less than five years of elementary school. Sy-one percent of those 25 or more had completed four years of high school or gone beyond that, and 17.7 percent had completed four or more year of post-secondary education. The median number of school years completed was 12.6. The number of tertiary (that is, post-secondary) students per 100,000 inhabitants was 5,355. Some contrasts: the number of tertiary students per 100,000 in the population was 4,006 in Canada, in no other country, according to UNESCO data, was the number of post-secondary students above 2,700 per 100,000. Korea had 2,696 tertiary students per 100,000 inhabitants; Japan, 2,030; the USSR, 1,970; Argentina, 1,890; HongKong, 1,353; Malaysia, 472; and Ethiopia, 48. Naturally, an educational system that retains as many people as the American system does is likely to enroll a broader range of students than a system that seeks to educate only the few who seem especially suited for academic work. In the American system, academic rigor tends to come later than it does in most other systems. In many instances, American students do not face truly demanding educational requirements until they seek a graduate (that is, post-baccalaureate) degree. Many other systems place heavy demands on students as early as their primary years - though college may be far less demanding, as is the case in Japan.

In which countries was the numbers of tertiary students above 2,700 per 100,000