This year, for the first time, applicants to secondary schools applied via the DiPSy electronic system. Confusion with paper applications gave way to other worries. Schools cannot send out invitations en masse, so their management spent many hours sending them. In addition, the number of applicants is enormous, exceeding expectations by 15,000.
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Entrance exams to secondary schools are fast approaching, two dates for four-year courses are scheduled for April 12 and 15. Those interested in the six- and eight-year high school will be tested on April 16 and 17.
"The number of applicants throughout the Czech Republic exceeded expectations by 15,000," points out Miroslav Hřebecký from the EDUin organization. Some schools have thus seen an enormous increase in the number of applicants.
"We have twice as many of them as in previous years. But this is due to the possibility of submitting three applications instead of the previous two. Those who were not accepted last year are also applying again. Several pupils attending the classroom also want to switch to the matriculation course," explains to TN.cz Soňa Froňková, the director of the High School of Horse Racing and Equestrianism from Velká Chuchle.
However, experts welcome the possibility of submitting three applications. "Thanks to them, supply and demand will be compared very quickly and 80 to 90% of applicants will be accepted immediately after the first round, which will hopefully be a significant improvement compared to last year," explains Hřebecký.
Prague is traditionally one of the worst regions that have to reject the most applicants. "We have enough capacity for applicants, in recent years we have increased it by hundreds of additional places, but not for half of the Central Bohemian Region," points out the director of the Department of Education at the Prague Municipality (MHMP) Lenka Němcová, alluding to the great interest of "cross-country pupils" in studying in metropolis.
There are 2,000 places missing in Prague
This year, according to the organization CERMAT, students submitted a total of 60,778 applications to all secondary schools in the capital, which include private or church schools in addition to those established by the city. If everyone took advantage of the opportunity to apply to three schools or three fields of study, there would be a total of 20,259 applicants.
The capacity of secondary schools of all types of founders in Prague is 18,161. Even so, there remain roughly 2,000 applicants for whom there is no place in the metropolis. Among other things, they will be able to apply for places outside the capital, which will probably be used mainly by interested people from Central Bohemia.
However, they have it complicated in this regard. "They often have the best transport connections to Prague. The entire metropolitan area is built in such a way that most connections go to the capital. On the other hand, getting from Beroun to Rakovník, for example, is undoubtedly more difficult," reminds Němcová from MHMP.
Nevertheless, the vice president of the Czech-Moravian trade union of education workers, Markéta Seidlová, perceives the situation optimistically.
"When there were still paper applications, children had to wait a very long time before they found out whether or not they were accepted, because the appeal process took a very long time. There will be the possibility of appeal this year as well, with paper applications, especially pupils who failed in the first round, lived a long time in uncertainty. This could easily last until mid-May," Seidlová points out.
Unlucky DiPSs
However, even the launch of the DiPSy electronic application submission system was not without problems. Due to difficulties with uploading attachments, its start was initially postponed, and according to some secondary school principals, everything is still not ideal.
"The confusion surrounding DiPSa continues because the system is not finished. For example, it is not possible to send out invitations en masse, my representative had to send them one at a time and it took a lot of time. And he could have devoted himself to something more useful," points out Radko Sáblík, director of the Smíchovská Secondary Technical School and high school.
"We also hired a part-time worker to download motivation letters and applicants' portfolios from the system. We are concerned that DiPSy could stop working during the entrance exams, which would be a huge problem," adds Sáblík.