Mongolia continues to adhere to the Soviet model of 10 years of school education of which 8 are compulsory, although this is being gradually extended in the direction of the European model.
There are over 4,000 rivers in Mongolia, known as Gols in Mongolian. Most of the country's 20 or so significant waterways are in the Northern Arctic Basin in Central and Northern Mongolia, which has the highest annual precipitation.
Mongolian culture and history has been formed in large part by the dynamic forces of nature and struggle that are embodied in the ancient nomadic existance of the Mongol peoples.