School

In general, a school is a place where children receive an education. There are schools in both the Capitol and the districts of Panem.

The main purpose of schools is to train children in preparation to work in their districts' industries. Schools also serve as propaganda outlets to indoctrinate them into submission to the Capitol and to discourage rebellion, similar to schools in most countries run by authoritarian regimes.

School in the districts

District 2

Some of the people of District 2 were educated for military jobs in the Nut, while others would become quarry or mine workers, and others still were funneled into training as Peacekeepers. Also, Sejanus Plinth's elementary school in District 2 took class photos, and they did not have school uniforms.

District 12

Every lesson seemed to come back to coal, except for basic reading, math, and the weekly lecture on the history of Panem. According to Katniss Everdeen, it was highly propagandized "blather" about what the districts owed the Capitol, rather than an actual account of the Dark Days. However, she learned enough history to know that rebels' attempt to scale the Rocky Mountains led to the failure of the First Rebellion. Children also learned precious little about geography; Katniss was taught that the Capitol was built in the Rockies, and that District 12 was in Appalachia, but did not learn much about other districts beyond their industries.

School subjects were taught by different instructors, since Katniss mentioned having a music teacher and a math teacher. Outside of regular lessons, the school held assemblies, sports activities, and competitions. The school also organized annual tours of the mines, and students graduated from school to work at the age of 18. Additionally, teachers informed students about mandatory television programming.

District 13

District 13's school was called the Education Center. Anyone required to attend would have their schedule printed onto their arm in temporary ink each morning. There was a rarely-used supply closet in the Education Center, as the people of 13 were so frugal that they rarely needed to retrieve anything from it. In terms of classes, there was one on nuclear history. Delly Cartwright said that school was "much more interesting" than in District 12.

Apart from the Education Center, people over the age of 14 were given combat training in preparation for the Second Rebellion. District 13 also had an orientation for new citizens, the subject matter of which is largely unknown, but Primrose Everdeen said she learned about bunker missiles there.

Other districts

Other than District 12, it seemed to be common practice for other districts' children to begin working before they left school.

• In the films, Career Tributes from Districts 1 and 2 trained in special academies until they turned 18, at which point they would volunteer to compete in the Hunger Games.
• Children in District 3 learned to manipulate audio in school.
• In District 8, Bonnie and her teacher Twill worked a four-hour shift at a textile factory for Peacekeeper uniforms after school.
• In District 11, lessons were not held amid the harvest. Everyone, including young children like Rue, worked during this time.

Victors under the age of 18 were not required to keep attending school. A monetary prize from the Capitol meant they would not have to work to survive, so further education in their district's industry was no longer needed.

School in the Capitol

Elementary school

During the Dark Days, the government provided a free snack of "scratchy, tasteless" nutritional crackers in order to incentivize children to attend.

Secondary school

The Academy

In The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, there was an elite, four-year secondary school known as the Academy, with over four hundred students in each class. Tuition was free— though acceptance was dependent on a family's prestige— and uniforms, supplies, and lunches were provided to students. Students who committed serious infractions would receive a demerit, and three demerits would result in a student's expulsion. However, the Academy had a tradition of offering students a lifeline as an alternative to public disgrace.

Subjects taught at the Academy included communications, physical education, history, and high biology, which was restricted to only senior students "gifted in the science". High-performing Academy students would be presented with financial prizes upon graduation in midsummer, which could pay the steep tuition fees at the University. Like in District 12, students graduated at 18.

The Capitol also had other secondary schools whose commencements fell earlier than the Academy's.

Continuing education

The only known subject at the University was a "special honors class in military strategy", which was taught by Dr. Volumnia Gaul at the University Science Center.

School in post-war Panem

More than twenty years after the Second Rebellion, the Hunger Games were taught about at school, and Katniss and Peeta Mellark's daughter knew that her parents played a role in them.

Trivia

• Peeta Mellark fell in love with Katniss when they were five and he heard her sing the valley song in music assembly.
• The year before the 74th Hunger Games, Peeta came second in a school wrestling competition, after one of his brothers.
• Katniss became friends with Madge Undersee at school. They ate lunch together, sat beside one another in assemblies, and paired up for sports activities.
• Lucy Gray Baird did not attend school in District 12, instead working full-time as a musician.
• In The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Coriolanus Snow's granddaughter mentioned that everyone in school was wearing Katniss Everdeen's signature braid.