Archive: Society | Education Education
Fate of education reforms unclear after week of student protests
A week of student protests against proposed reforms of the education system
culminated with mass demonstrations around the country on Wednesday. After
a night spent sleeping rough on the floor of university halls and lecture
rooms students and university staff took to the streets to show their
discontent with reforms which they claim will reduce the autonomy of
education institutions, shift the burden of funding to students and put the
academic sphere under the influence of private enterprise and politicians. More
Students continue protests over university reform proposals
The student protests that formed a key component of the 1989 Velvet
Revolution serve as a stark reminder, even more than twenty years later,
that the imagery of any Czech government upsetting its student population
is going to create a major headache. Recent reforms proposed by the Czech
Education Ministry under Josef Dobeš have achieved just that. Students are
crying foul, with banners draped in universities across the country
accusing the government of putting profits before education. This week,
many Czech students have taken matters a step further with a self-titled
“Week of protests” against the legislation. Tuesday sees students
attending countless workshops and debates while protests marching on the
offices of the Czech government are scheduled for Wednesday. Dominik Jůn
spoke to Charles University student Matouš Turek, one of organizers of the
protests, and began by asking Turek to explain the background behind the
controversial legislation: More
Roma kids from special schools put Czech education system to shame in Great Britain
Thousands of teachers around the country are up in arms. They are unhappy
about the government’s plans to gradually phase out special schools –
or schools for children with a mental or physical handicap – and
integrate as many of these children as possible into the education
mainstream. More
Therapist: parental failure behind increasingly aggressive kids
Aggressive behavior in young children and adolescents is on the rise and
there are indications that parents are increasingly unable to deal with it.
Schoolteachers are ringing alarm bells and therapists are warning of the
dire consequences of failing to deal with the problem in time.
More
Scandal-plagued Plzeň law faculty will have to close its doors
The scandal-plagued Plzeň faculty of law appears to have come to the end of
the road. On Wednesday the Czech Accreditation Commission announced that
the West-Bohemian law faculty’s undergraduate programme had failed to
pass muster and its accreditation would not be extended past this autumn.
On Thursday some 300 of the faculty’s 2,000 students gathered outside
their school to protest against the decision and have appealed to Education
Minister Josef Dobeš to intervene. However their chances of success are
meager, since under Czech law the minister is not in a position to question
the verdict of the accreditation commission. We spoke to its chairwoman
prof. Vladimíra Dvořáková to find out what was behind the commission’s
decision. More
Teachers seek to revive Latin at Czech schools
Latin once used to be the cornerstone of classical education. Until the
middle of the 20th century, some knowledge of the language was a
prerequisite for any career in the academia, and Latin was taught at every
grammar school. But the numbers of students taking up the language has
dropped by a half over the past decade. That’s why a group of Latin
teachers launched a campaign to revive the teaching of Latin at Czech
schools. More
Parents of “wolf children” on trial at Prague city court for child neglect
The mother and father of two boys, dubbed “wolf children” by the Czech
media, are currently on trial at a Prague city court. In a shocking and
unusual case of child abuse, the parents never let their sons out of the
apartment, did not dress them and fed them only liquid food. They deny
charges of abuse and say they simply wanted to raise their children in an
alternative way. More
Education Ministry to launch nationwide tests for elementary school pupils
The Education Ministry will soon launch nationwide tests it believes will
help improve the plummeting standards of Czech elementary schools. Contrary
to the ministry’s original plan, the tests will not restrict those who do
poorly from pursuing a higher education. Even so critics say the plan is
too vague and some of them have even launched a petition asking parents to
boycott the tests. More
Using classical music to help children out of poverty
In this special programme, David Vaughan looks at a unique project to
encourage children with musical talent who come from some of the poorest
families in the Czech Republic. The project enables primary school children
to learn to play with some of the country’s foremost classical musicians.
Its success is a reminder of the power of music to cross boundaries of
language, class and culture. More
Christopher Harwood – professor of Czech at Columbia University
Christopher Harwood is a lecturer in Czech at Columbia University in New
York. When I met him at his office on Columbia’s Upper West Side campus,
we discussed Czech literature, the difficulties of learning Czech, and how
Professor Harwood himself had become good enough at the language to teach
it at one of the world’s leading universities. More
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