Organisational variations of upper secondary education

Sports Training Secondary General Schools

Teaching in this four-year field of study Sports Training Secondary General Schools (gymnázia se sportovní přípravou) is provided according to the Framework Education Programme for Sports Training Secondary General School. The general part of this programme is identical with the Framework Education Programme for Secondary General Education. The specific part consists of physical education and sports training to which 64 teaching hours are devoted out of the 184 hours of total compulsory number of teaching hours during studies. Apart from the obligatory common admission examination, the aptitude test is a part of the admission procedure to the educational field Sports Training General Secondary Schools. In 2021/22, there were a total of 17 upper secondary schools providing the Sports Training Secondary General Schools (source: Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports).

Bilingual General Secondary Schools

On the basis of the Government Regulation on the System of Fields of Studies, a new educational field “Bilingual General Secondary School” (dvojjazyčné gymnázium) has been introduced in 2016, which has replaced the previous one. The common admission examination is a part of the admission procedure to this educational field.

The schools teach according to the school education programmes created on the basis of the Framework Education Programme for Bilingual Secondary General School. The instruction according to the pilot programme was verified from 2009 to 2015. The Framework Education Programme is valid for all six years of studies. It also includes the basic education provided in the first two years of studies. During the initial two years, the foreign language teaching is intensive – 10 hours per week, as a minimum; in the next four years, at least a half of the subjects is taught in a foreign language (English, German, French, Spanish and Italian). According to the Framework Education Programme for Bilingual General Secondary Schools, education in a foreign language leads to the competence level C1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Moreover, the framework education programme stipulates that pupils learn also another language; the attainment of the competence level B1 is required.

In the 2021/22 school year, there were the following numbers of bilingual general secondary schools providing education in Czech and:

• English – 3 bilingual general secondary schools / with 1288 pupils
• French – 5 bilingual general secondary schools / with 629 pupils
• Spanish – 5 bilingual general secondary schools / with 810 pupils
• German – 3 bilingual general secondary schools / with 567 pupils
• Italian – 1 bilingual general secondary school / with 172 pupils.

(Source: Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports.)

Teaching some subjects in a foreign language at upper secondary schools

According to the Education Act, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports can authorise any school (based on a successful application) to teach selected subjects in a foreign language in all grades if personnel and other conditions are fulfilled, same as for the teaching some subjects in a foreign language in basic schools. In the school year 2021/22, 31 upper secondary schools were awarded this authorisation for 57 fields of study (including schools which provide vocational courses), but many of them did not use it.

Teaching in national minority languages at upper secondary schools

Members of national minorities have the right to be educated in their minority language. In the 2021/22 school year, there was one upper secondary school providing tuition in Polish for 333 pupils (source: Statistical Yearbook – Education. Performance Statistic Indicators). In addition, one upper secondary school offers education in Polish language in groups within the field of business academy.

Alternative directions of education at upper secondary schools

Schools can use the principles of the alternative education programmes. Holistic education based on pupils' developmental needs, focused on personal development, is offered by the Waldorf Lyceums (educational field Combined Lyceum completed with Maturita examination). The main principles in teaching at these schools are:

• teaching in blocks, which allows pupils to study the subject matter in depth, in context, allows not just to stay informed, but to get to understand things, to own thinking and opinion;
• phenomenological (exemplary) learning, in which pupils deeper focus on selected phenomena; together with the teacher, pupils then include such phenomena in the system context; the approach develops the ability to research and discover, detect, and specify a problem, to explore different solutions;
• discovery based learning, where there is no transfer of completed knowledge, but pupils come to knowledge together with the teacher, participate in finding solutions, may come up with their own ideas and views of the matter;
• focus on the development of general methodological, social and personality competences.

Art education

Education in conservatoires

Separate parts 6.4, 6.5 and 6.6 are devoted to conservatoires, which are considered as an independent type of school.

Basic art schools

Basic art schools provide basic art education in some of the individual fields of art (music field of study, dance field of study, visual arts field of study, drama and literary field of study). However, these schools do not provide any level of education defined by ISCED.

Language education

The language schools authorised to organise state language examinations provide language educationfor the public in different types of courses (basic, conversation, preparatory courses for language examinations, etc.), often offering quite a wide range of languages.

The attendance is not limited by age – adults as well as pupils and students may attend the lessons. Some types of language education are intended especially for the upper secondary school-leavers. This is the case of the one-year post-secondary foreign language courses following a Maturita examination, in the day form of study.

In 2021/22, there were 20 language schools authorised to organise state language examinations. They offered courses mainly in English and Czech, but also in many other languages.