Education in Styx

The Stygian education system is famously complex. Schooling starts soon for children in Styx.

After giving birth most mothers return to the workforce quickly leaving their children in the care of their multiple husbands until they can stand and walk at which point they are made to take a brief physical examination and preliminary testing.

Doktores in Styx which conduct these examinations and tests are supposed to be knowledgable about the ordinary development of all of the common races of Styx but complaints about a lack of understanding of the typical childhood development of non-Sumraki-Ashaī do happen.

If the doktores of the Early Education Department (EED) agree a child's development is ordinary enough they are enrolled in a primary school where their proper education begins.

Children who show signs of abnormality are also introduced to the primary schools but with more guidance and doktoral oversight.

Primary schooling in Styx includes academic base lines like counting, reading, writing, basic Stygian law, the Code of Serkatha (which is studied until it can be recited by heart) as well as basic physical exercises like entry level acrobatics, team sports, swimming and wrestling. Education in the arts like painting, singing or playing various traditional instruments also happens but these fields are notoriously underfunded.
Children are also taught about the great importance of the revolutionary values of Styx and the necessity for equality.

Another focus of early education is to instill empathy in students for those around them.
Every year across all age groups and grades schools in Styx test their students for magical talent. Those that show it are transferred to Magickal Education Boarding Schools (MEBS) where they undergo their ordinary education in a more controlled and strict environment until they have learned to reliable control their magickal aptitude.
Some students leave these schools very quickly and return to their ordinary schooling experience, others remain in them until their graduation.

Primary schooling usually lasts for 10 years and can start as early as age 2.

After primary school students are transferred to secondary schools. Secondary schools are where students are taught more advanced academic fields and start to specialize in what may become their profession one day. Secondary schools offer educational courses in the natural sciences, language education, mathematics, magickal sciences as well as athletic pursuits, martial arts, history and law.

These courses are still fairly basic and in the early years of secondary are taught to all students, later in their secondary schooling students get to pick which courses they wish to take and schools work closely with trade schools that offer practical experience in various professions.
Political education and the study of religious scripture also play a major role here.
Secondary schooling usually lasts for around 30 years with most students graduating around the age of 40.

After secondary school students graduate and switch to trade schools where they learn a chosen profession from members of the Great Unions. Some students transfer to the Academia Ars Magicka et Mundane rather than trade school and enter the academic field proper.
Trade schools exist for all professions in Styx and are hosted by the various Great Unions. They include practical and theoretical professional training as well as deeper education about the political structures of Styx.
Students stay in trade schools until around the age of 60 usually with some professions studying longer than others.

After trade school or an academic education at the Academia Ars Magicka et Mundana Stygian youths are done with their main education and are expected to undergo mandatory military training and then service for 20 years leaving them ready to start a profession at around the age of 80 years.
Certain professions require further academic or trade school certifications to be labored in which some people undergo but most people in Styx begin a regular work schedule at this point with their education and formation into upstanding and well rounded citizens of the People's Republic of Styx successfully completed.

An issue the Stygian education system has only recently begun addressing is that the school system is innately oriented for Sumraki-Ashaī and not accessible for students whose races have a much shorter lifespan. New school systems are being developed to educate those "mayfly" races as they are called by the Temple Parliament and enable them to live their short lives within Stygian society happy and fulfilled.

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