Press: Social Democrats propose ‘penalisation fees’ for underachieving students

The opposition Social Democrats would consider the introduction of fines for underachieving students, Hospodářské noviny reported on Monday. The Civic Democratic Party, which is currently in power, is for the idea of a British-style system of tuition fees and student loans, but has said that it will not implement such a system during this term in office. The Social Democrats have always been against such a plan to make students pay. In a new proposal published on Monday, however, the Social Democrats said that they were for the idea of ‘penalisation fees’ – in other words, charging those who fail an exam, should they want to re-sit it. The shadow education minister Jiří Havel has said that such fees would not discriminate against any parts of society, as the cost of re-sitting an exam would not be that high. Mr Havel envisages charging students around 200 crowns (12 USD) for an exam re-sit, and an additional 100 crowns per term if their results were bad.

Author: Rosie Johnston