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.
Mongolia is high, cold, and dry. It has an extreme continental climate with long, cold winters and short summers, during which most precipitation falls. The country averages 257 cloudless days a year, and it is usually at the center of a region of high atmospheric pressure.
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.