The school system in Chennai consists of an array of structured systems. Children typically start school (junior or lower kindergarten) at the age of three, progressing to senior or upper kindergarten followed by twelve years of study. Class 10 and class 12 involve taking public examinations conducted by various accreditation boards.
Administrative categories
Chennai schools fall into two administrative categories - government schools called as corporation schools and privately run schools. Private schools fall under the following categories schools with central board syllabus, schools with State Board syllabus, schools with matric syllabus, schools with Anglos Indian Syllabus and schools with oriental syllabus. In Private Managed State Board Syllabus schools there are two categories one Self financing and the other is Government Aided Schools. In few Government Aided Schools few section may also be of Self Financing nature.
Medium of instruction
Most private schools are English medium (medium of instruction is English) while the government run schools are primarliy Tamil medium (medium of instruction is Tamil). The Kendriya Vidyalas run by the central government have a dual medium of instruction - English and Hindi.
Accreditation
All recognized schools belong to one of the following accreditation systems:
