15_School_and_education

15) School and education

I think education is very important for every one of us, at school we learn new things, get new information and it also prepares us for our future lives.

First of all, I’d like to talk about the school system in the Czech Republic.

The Czech education system includes 4 stages. The first is pre-school education. Children from the age of 1 to the age of 3 may visit nursery school but nowadays it isn’t very common. Then from the age of 3 they usually go to kindergartens and learn taking care of themselves and social skills among other children there.

The second stage is compulsory primary education. In our country, school attendance is obligatory for 9 years which is usually from the age of 6 till the age of 15.

Primary education is divided to 2 levels. At the first level, from the 1st to the 5th form, the pupils learn to read, write and count. After the first level, they can pass the entrance exams to 8-year grammar school or they can stay at primary school and continue on the second level from the 6th to the 9th form. There, they learn Czech language, foreign language and the specialized subjects like Chemistry, Biology, History, etc. It’s different for them because they change the subject and also the teacher every lesson.

After the end of primary school most of the pupils pass the entrance exams to secondary education which lasts 3 or 4 years.

There are many kinds of secondary schools - vocational schools which prepare for a future practical jobs, grammar schools that concetrate on deeper studying of the previous subjects from primary school, or specialized schools, like business schools, medical schools and many more.

Grammar schools mainly prepare students for university studies. The students learn all the subjects without special orientation. Grammar school finishes in the end of the 4th year with the school-leaving examination. This year the maturita consists of two parts – the school which is composed of two subjects, one of them has to be language and it doesn’t matter if you choose Czech, English or Russian, and second optional subjects. The other part is state. It is the same for every student in the CR. For every one, Czech language is compulsory and the second subject is either English or Math. If you choose language you’ll have to pass oral exam, write an essay and a test, if you choose Math there is only test.

Succesful students from secondary schools can continue in education and enter any university. Tertiary education lasts usually for 3 years to get the Bachelor’s degree and you can also study 2 more years to get the Master’s degree. And at some schools where you study for example medicine or law you have to study for another two years to get the Doctor’s degree. These studies are finished with the national exam.

In general, the school year in our country starts in September and ends in June and is divided into two 5-month-long terms. At the end of every term students receive school reports. During the school year, the students have many holidays, such as the Autumn holiday, Christmas holiday or Spring holiday. They can also take advantage of the days off when they go to theatre, cinema or on other trips or when they leave to different courses - ski course, sport course and many more.