The Czech schools are being held back by social inequality, children's education is influenced by their family backgrounds, schools need targeted support, experts say
The achievements of pupils in the Czech schools are greatly determined by their family backgrounds. Data produced by the Czech School Inspectorate (ČŠI) and international comparisons show that Czech schools are not managing to improve the situations of disadvantaged children.
Representatives of the Education Ministry (MŠMT) and the National Institute for Pedagogy (NPI) agreed this is the case during an NPI conference on a project called “Connecting the Principals of Disadvantaged Schools”. According to them, schools need different degrees of support depending on how demanding the environment is in which they work.
An amendment to the Act on Education that was approved by the Government in October should aid with this if ultimately passed. According to Klára Bezděková of the NPI, the socioeconomic backgrounds of families influence what kind of secondary school pupils apply to, for instance.
“In order to have enough talent to keep society and the economy running, it will be necessary, in my opinion, to unblock the human potential that exists outside of the urban middle class. That is a big task for our schools,” Deputy Education Minister Jiří Nantl (Civic Democratic Party – ODS) told the conference.
According to the director of the Department of Equal Access to Education at the MŠMT, Jan Vöröš Mušuta, the amendment to the Act on Education that was approved by the Government in October should aid the provision of systemic support to socially disadvantaged schools. It should introduce, among other matters, rules for how special needs educators and school psychologists should perform their work in the primary schools.
The amendment would also introduce an opportunity to send more money to schools which dedicate themselves to socially disadvantaged children or systematically work with gifted children, for instance. According to the amendment, the Government would also be able to regulate the rate at which positions in the primary and secondary schools grow.
If adopted, the amendment could take effect in 2026. Currently it includes more than one alternative for the Government to introduce the position of social educators as members of pedagogical staff in the primary schools.
The Government approved the amendment without choosing to clearly anchor such positions in it. That could be changed by a group of lawmakers in the lower house who want to introduce such positions through the amendment adoption process, director Vöröš Mušuta said.
Deputy Education Minister Nantl said he is convinced the position will ultimately become part of the law. Support for pupil satisfaction in the schools was also the focus of material from the ČŠI presented to the conference by Dana Pražáková.
According to those findings, whether children look forward to school is influenced not just by their socioeconomic status, but also by whether they have an opportunity to ask questions during instruction without fear of what will happen or whether the teacher takes an interest in them. The inspectorate describes the aspects which impact whether pupils look forward to school or not in its analytical papers.
The inspectorate has also prepared its own proposals for the discussion of different subjects in the schools and other institutions. Those interested will find information in the ČŠI material that is focused, for instance, on how school management helps to strengthen the desired reactions of teachers to challenges or how well teachers know the students in their classes.
