Education

Czech

Free Czech Language Lessons for all Foreign Children

photo: (sxc.hu)

All foreign children who attend a primary school in the Czech Republic can now study the Czech language for free, based on an amendment to the Education Act, in force since the beginning of 2012.

The Education Act newly states that all foreign pupils who fulfil the compulsory school attendance have the right to receive free preparation for their integration into primary education, including Czech lessons adjusted to the needs of those students. The lessons are facilitated by the Regional Authority according to the residence of the pupil in cooperation with the school principal. Until now, free Czech language lessons were only available to children from EU-member countries.

You will find a list of schools that teach Czech for foreign children here, or you can get more information from the Regional Authorities in your residential area.

The amendment to the Education Act brings the following significant changes for primary schools students in 2012:

Decreased number of applications for secondary schools – students can now only apply for two secondary schools or gymnasiums.
New “enrolment forms” – if the child succeeds in the entrance exams to both schools they have applied for, they must confirm their interest in studying at one of these schools by submitting the so-called “enrolment form”.
Primary schools are no longer obliged to compose a leaving evaluation of the pupil. The class teacher, in cooperation with the pedagogical advisor and other teachers, had to previously elaborate an assessment on the child’s abilities, aspects of their character, possibly their successes at knowledge or sport Olympiads, etc. This leaving evaluation was attached to the application form for the secondary school. From now on, schools do longer need to elaborate the assessment any more.