Prague – From next year, education in the new field of general lyceum will start in the Czech Republic. The field will strengthen the general branch of secondary education. Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) told journalists. According to him, the Ministry of Education will start with the testing part of the project, by June educational programs should be created in the participating schools, according to which classes will be taught from September. Pupils can now study lyceums with a branch focus, such as pedagogical or technical lyceums.
The advantage of the general lyceum will be greater flexibility and, in contrast to the current branch-specific lyceums, of which there are seven, the possibility of their various combinations, said Deputy Minister of Education Jiří Nantl (ODS). According to him, for example, medical and technical skills and knowledge could be combined, which, according to him, was not possible now. Students could start the new field in September next year, he said.
Nantl expects that all regions will use the new field to varying degrees, with the greatest interest expected in the Central Bohemia region. “We anticipate that over the next two years, because the pilot validation has two placement runs, there could be about 60 high schools involved,” Nantl said. According to the Ministry’s statistics, there were about 1,300 secondary schools in the Czech Republic last school year.
According to Fiala, the creation of a new general field is a necessary step to change the education system so that it meets the needs of society and reflects the priorities of young people. According to him, there is interest in the lyceum. “This year, almost 24,000 students applied to the lyceum, and this shows the interest and that this is a type of education that has a perspective,” he said. According to him, the general lyceum will create an alternative to gymnasiums. According to Fiala, many young people do not know what they want to do at the age of 15.
In addition to creating a new field, the ministry is also working to reduce the number of secondary school fields. According to Deputy Minister of Education Nantla, the aim is also to clarify the fields of study offered. There are three variants, one with 157 fields, the second with 115 and the third with 104 fields, now there are about 280 of them.
The Association of Secondary Technical Schools is against the introduction of a new general lyceum, considering it redundant. “I think that trying to force students to go to schools or fields of study they don’t want to go to doesn’t lead anywhere. We have to take into account the demand, which of course is reasonable to some extent,” Minister of Education Mikuláš Bek (STAN). According to him, it is also necessary to look for ways to satisfy other legitimate interests of, for example, employers.
“Our ambition is to think about the education system as a whole. We pay a lot of attention to ensure that the individual levels and articles of the education system are well connected to each other,” said Bek. According to him, it is important to strengthen the general stream of secondary education. He would also like to pave the way, through an amendment to the Education Act, to the creation of shorter than three-year study programs at higher vocational schools in the future. According to him, these could meet the demand of employers and could be a good path for lyceum graduates.
CR school government Fiala AUDIO secondary
Source: www.ceskenoviny.cz
