A Czech Student's Life

The student lifestyle in the Czech Republic differs vastly from that of the States. So, let's begin...

The Czech education system is separated into three distinct levels.

1. Primary School, ages 6-15: A primary school education is compulsory for all Czechs, which means they can stop attending school at the age of 15 after passing their school leaving exams. However, they will not advance very far in society due to their low educational levels. Typically, very weak students stop here, such as the Roma population (which is a whole different topic in itself). They tend to obtain unskilled, menial, low-paying jobs in society.

Students receive their education in the same building for the entirety of their primary school education. This means six year olds are in the same building as fifteen year olds. The extreme age difference does not seem to be of any concern here. This is uniform throughout the nation. The only exception is for the best and brightest students, who have the opportunity to take entrance exams and obtain an eight-year Gymnázium education. These students will attend a Gymnázium from ages 11-19.

Students with disabilities are not mainstreamed here. They attend separate, special schools away from the regular population. At this time, I do not possess any information on how they are educated nor what services are provided to them.

2. Secondary School, ages 15-19: A secondary school education is optional and varies depending on which type of school one attends. At the age of 15, students apply to different schools and many must take entrance examinations. The best and brightest students attend a Gymnázium, which offers a well-rounded education that prepares students to take their Maturita Exam, or school leaving exam, and prepares students to excel at a university. Other options include vocational or technical schools, where students still learn ordinary school subjects, however, they are supplemented with lessons in special skills, such as hairdressing, cooking, mechanics, etc. These students may still take the Maturita Exam and go on to college, but they are less prepared compared to their Gymnázium peers. The last option is to attend a conservatory, or music school. The majority of students who attend conservatories plan to become professional musicians.

I teach at Gymnázium Strakonice, which is very modern and fully updated compared to some of its equivalents in other cities. The school day begins at 7:00, but only for those who are taking a fourth language, such as Spanish, French, Italian, or Latin. The majority of students begin their day at 7:50 with second period. The lessons last for 45 minutes, but the breaks between lessons are quite long. In the morning there are often ten minute breaks between lessons, with one twenty minute break after the third lesson. After the lunch periods, the breaks decrease to a mere five minutes between lessons. Students hang out in their classrooms or outside between periods, chat, play games, eat snacks, or go to the bathroom. They are completely unsupervised. Of course, if there is some sort of commotion, the teachers leave their offices to see what's going on, but this is a rare occasion.

At both the primary and secondary levels, students take up to fourteen subjects at one time. These include: Czech, English, German, History, Geography, Ethics, Philosophy, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Civil Sciences, Information Technology, Art or Music, and Physical Education. They do not take each subject every day. Students typically take language classes three or four times per week and mathematics four times per week, otherwise all other subjects are only taken twice a week. They have a total of thirty-three lessons per week. Thus, the students will end their school day at different times each day. The earliest students may finish is 12:20 and the latest is 3:45.

Each grade level is separated into four cohorts. For example, 1.A, 1.B, 1.C, 5.0 (The 5.0 being for the eight-year Gymnázium students). This would be the Freshmen class. The students stay with their individual cohort throughout their entire secondary education. There is no mixing and mingling of students or grade levels. Tracking is used in this nation, so the students are split up according to their skills and abilities Therefore, 1.A. might be the strongest, highest achieving students, 1.B medium-level, and 1.C lowest level. There are usually up to thirty-two students per class, except for language classes, where the cohorts are split into two groups (again weaker versus stronger) for a maximum of sixteen students per class.

A Gymnázium education is very demanding. Students mainly hear lectures and are expected to learn the information and retain it. There seems to be little time for analyzing and synthesizing information or applying the material to real world situations. There's no creativity or student projects. Czech students do not know how to properly complete research or write papers before they enter a university, which is one of the education system's downfalls. There is no such thing as homework in this nation either. The students rarely, if ever, get any. They are expected to study on their own everyday after school.

There are only two standardized tests: one for leaving primary school and one for leaving secondary school. The Maturita Exam consists of four subjects. Students must take Czech language and one second language, usually English or German. The other two subjects are up to their discretion. Each examination is different. Languages consist of reading, writing, speaking, and listening parts. Mathematics is strictly written. The sciences have laboratory parts in addition to written parts. The social sciences consist of fifteen minute oral examinations. There are a total of 25-33 topics for each subject, where of course, a student may only be tested on a few.

As for fun, there are no extracurricular activities, such as clubs or sports, held at the school. These types of activities are run by the towns and students must pay to participate on their own time. Some of my students are enrolled in activities like CPR and first aid, ballet, basketball, ice hockey, water polo, tennis, and/or soccer. The only thing my school does have is a Choir. I went to see their spring concert last month and it was magnificent. In addition to singing, the students themselves played the piano, guitar, violins, and drums when needed. They are quite talented. Here are some video clips:

3. University, ages 19-26: University education is free for all Czech citizens. Most schools require entrance examinations, and some universities, such as the ones in Prague, are highly competitive. When applying to universities, you apply to specific schools, such as The School of Economics, The School of Education, The School of Medicine. You begin your studies immediately in your chosen field. There's no period allowed for being "undecided". If you decide to change majors, you must apply to a new school and begin again as credits usually do not transfer. As you may have noticed, students attend secondary school for an extra year here, however, they obtain their equivalent of a Bachelor's degree in just three years. In this country, a Bachelor's doesn't really mean anything. It is expected that you continue your studies, for a total of five or six years, to obtain a Master's degree. Czechs do not work while attending school, unless it is something simple and part-time. They are expected to concentrate on their studies, and obtain a full-time job after the age of 26.

That's the Czech education system in a nutshell.

Hochficht Ski Trip

In February, I had the pleasure of accompanying some first year students from Gymnázium Strakonice on their week long ski course at Hochficht Ski Resort in Austria. The majority of students owned skis or snowboards, however, some did rent them in advance. One of the Physical Education teachers let me borrow his wife's equipment so I could save money, which was extremely kind!

Hochficht is a relatively easy mountain compared to the Alps, but much closer and cheaper for Czechs, especially since Czech schools traditionally book accommodation in Černá v Pošumavi, a Czech town near the border of Austria. The accommodation was located right on a beautiful lake with the Šumava mountains in the background, which made for picturesque sunsets!

Each day we would ride the bus for about an hour to get to Hochficht and an hour back, which honestly wasn't bad at all. We occupied our time by watching films. When it comes to censorship and age-appropriate films in an educational setting, there seem to be no rules in this country. We watched The Hangover, The Hangover II, The Hangover III, and The Stranger, all American films dubbed in Czech. I've seen some dubbed films before, but it's always strange, especially when you know the movie plots. I've recently learned that all the famous American actors have specific Czech individuals assigned to them when dubbing movies. This makes for a more realistic experience and Czechs can identify more with the character and his/her assigned voice.

In contrast, American students may only watch G, PG, and PG-13 films. They cannot contain too much violence nor sexual scenes. Inappropriate language is forbidden (or as a teacher I must skip over the parts when I know a curse is about to be said). It's all very ironic as I hear my students from the States say inappropriate language on a daily basis (though I try to discourage them) and I know they watch these types of films all the time at home. These rules have become much stricter since I was a student, which of course, wasn't all that long ago! Teachers must be careful and follow the rules. My first year of teaching I received a warning because my Assistant Principal walked in while I was showing Recount to my U.S. Government class, which only had Seniors, and two curses (out of a total of five during the entire film) were said. Needless to say, I've been extremely careful ever since!

Anyway, back to the ski trip. Here's a trail map so you can see the type of mountain we skied. In the States the trails are marked green (easy), blue (medium), black (hard), but in Europe it goes blue (easy), red (medium), black (hard).

The class was split into three different groups. Based on my skiing abilities, I decided to go with the middle group. They were a perfect match! Most of us had skied previously, but none of us went all that often. In my case, I've been skiing since I was thirteen years old, but I usually only ski 3-7 days out of the whole year. 

The ski trip consisted of us skiing a morning session from 9:30-12:00, breaking for lunch and relaxation (which is mandatory for the students) from 12:00-1:30, then skiing an afternoon session from 1:30-4:00. The teachers would meet back at the bus from 1:00-1:30 each day for a "coffee break", where we just talked, drank something hot, and ate some biscuits. 

Teachers

Let's be honest. I can't remember the last time I skied for more than three days. I took a short nap at lunch. I also only made it during the morning sessions for the fourth and fifth days, which was totally fine with me. This was a lot of skiing! While I was busy napping, Tomaš (one of the P.E. teachers) was busy taking pictures of his food or having someone take pictures of him tanning in the sunshine. He then sent them to his friends who were at work. It was all very comical!

My group mainly stayed on the easy and medium trails. Although it was February, as previously stated, we've had a relatively warm winter here in Europe. It was nearly 45F/7C and sunny each day. Honestly, I hate being freezing so the warmer weather was nice, but it made for terrible ski trails.

Ski Lift

Riding the Ski Lift

Each day it seemed to get warmer, and more and more snow started melting. The trails became smaller and smaller. Apparently, the snow machines can only be turned on and create new snow if it's below 32F/0C, which wasn't happening, even at nighttime! This was one of the worst trails we encountered:

In terms of technological advancement, Austria blows the States out of the water. They use key card ski passes, which you can just put in your jacket pocket, and they use turnstiles before each lift. Obviously, if you do not have a key card ski pass, you cannot pass through the turnstile. The key card ski pass has a small deposit fee. When you return it at the end of the day, or week, you get the deposit money back. 

Instead of using chairlifts, the easiest trails have these pole things that kind of look like anchors. Two people at a time can use them. You grab onto the pole then put part of the anchor underneath your butt. It then hoists you up the mountain, but very slowly. I didn't particularly care for these contraptions. You can put some weight onto it, but it's more like you're standing and skiing up the mountain.

Of course, when going to the medium or hard trails, chairlifts were essential. The mountains were not extremely high, so no gondolas were needed.

On a Chairlift

Skiing

There was still a nice view despite the lack of snow.

Here I am, in the light blue Smurf-looking jacket at the bottom right, with everyone.

Ultimately, I had a great time on the ski trip in spite of insufficient snow. It allowed me to practice my Czech since two of the P.E. teachers do not speak English. More importantly, I was able to get to know this particular group of students on a more personal and individual basis. To date, these students are the ones whose names I remember the most at school. The students were friendly and included me in their discussions at lunch, on the bus, while riding the ski lifts, and during free time at night, when I played ping pong with them. They were courageous in speaking English with me and I was patient as they found their words and formulated ideas. It's not an easy task to talk freely and openly without a textbook dictating the conversations or activities, so for that, I give them a lot of credit!