Secondary schools are not prepared in terms of capacity for the strong year of the so-called Husák's grandchildren, who are heading for the entrance exams this year. Councilor of the Central Bohemian Region Milan Vácha (STAN) and EDUin director Miroslav Hřebecký agree in the Pro and Against program that radical systemic changes in education policy are needed, and blame the state and school founders for the situation.
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"Where construction grew, where the population grew, secondary education should also have been created, which did not happen. The founders are partly to blame for this, and the state, which did not quite clearly define its policy after the revolution, is to blame," says Vácha, a Central Bohemian councilor for education and sports.
Program director of the EDUin Hřebecký center, however, sees another culprit: "From my point of view, the founders of secondary schools, i.e. the regions, are mainly to blame."
However, the Central Bohemian councilor Vácha defends himself: "You inherit the plan from your predecessors six months after the election, and at the end of your term you have six months left when you hand over the government to your successors with your new long-term plan, which is nonsense that should be removed." "
And he reminds that the regions work with long-term plans that are valid for four years. "During the times when the population of children was declining, some subjects were not closed, the numbers deviated in favor of gymnasiums, and subjects from the bottom disappeared. The regions reacted differently to the increase in the number of pupils in 2015. "Prague is a different world than the periphery," defends Vácha's regional policy.
'Industrial Country'
Hřebecký sees the main problem in the fact that the structure of education is not adjusted as society develops. "We are not copying developed Western countries. Yes, we are an industrial country, so we will always have an industrial base here," he compares.
“But states that have similarly advanced industries have around 50 percent general education in the high school population, we're at 25 percent, the ministry would like 30 percent. But even that is a dream, because the region is responsible for the high school system," says the director.
However, the industry is pushing the regions into a narrow profiling of secondary school graduates, and there is great interest among pupils in some vocational schools, reminds Councilor Vácha: "However, everything is directed towards general education. At the same time, we inherited from the times of communism a structure built on 800 fields of study, when secondary schools produced specific employees."
"For students with college aspirations, high school fulfills the role of a place where they get four years to decide. It is true that those who do not have this aspiration have no other option. But we won't make any field of study that would be more universal. However, the fields are approved as they are, and we as a region try to hit them," the councilor describes the current practice.
Hřebecký from EDUin also confirms that there is interest in grammar schools and that the problem is not only regional: "The situation is different in different regions, but interest in grammar schools is across the country and people vote with their feet. In short, today's society is not so interested in those narrowly profiled fields."
"And if you have two applications and the media is telling you from everywhere that the child won't get in and you have to make the second choice for sure, then it is logical that there will be a huge rush at schools with less demand," says Hřebecký, adding that, for example this year, the number of submitted applications is slightly lower than expected precisely because parents and students were tactical with their applications.
"It's one thing for people to apply to some schools. Whether they actually get there is another matter. And it's a completely different matter if they graduate. And fourthly, if they are going to do it," reminds Hřebecký.
According to him, universities are massifying and there will be much more interest in them, as well as growing interest in general education. "The state should fundamentally rebuild the official structure and classification of fields. For example, we only have about 13 types of electricians, that's a lot, on the contrary, it would help if the field was more widely spread," Miroslav Hřebecký calls for concrete changes.
"We have places where there is no demand for gymnasiums. And there the systems begin to show completely different behavior than is required in the framework educational programs. There it is still stated that the gymnasium should be challenging," Milan Vácha (STAN) demonstrates the need for deeper changes in the structure of secondary education.