Schools and I

Schools and I

• first school I was attending was a nursery school and when I was 6 I moved to a basic school; the basic school had no specialisation and it even didn’t have extended language teaching, so I was learning only one language (English) and only for 4 years; I was the last class that didn’t have the compulsory 9th class and on the second term I passed the entrance exams to a secondary school, gymnasium; now I would like to enrol at a a university – CVUT, specialisation air traffic controller

• school system in CR :
Creche – is the first school, where babies are brought up until they are 3; it’s for mothers, who can’t stay on maternity leave with their children

Nursery school – from 3rd year of baby’s life the maternity leave for mothers finishes and they usually put their children in these school, where they can be until they are 6 or 7

Primary school – is compulsory for all children and the education is 9 years long

Secondary school – is voluntuary and children can choose from :
vocational schools – prepares for a job, emphasises handy work and practical training
technical schools – students are educated in specialised subjects
gymnasium – students are given general education

Supplementary schools – are usually 2 years long and educate students in specialised subjects

University – is the highest possible education; there are more types of them, e.g. technical and academical ones, academies of arts, millitary and police …

School year in CR
• school year in CR starts on the 1st of September, ends on 31st of June and is divided into two 5-months-long terms; at the end of every term students receive reports

• the first holidays are autumn holidays in October (2 days), then Christas holidays (in an ideal case they are 2 weeks long), half-of-term holiday is held after students receive reports (one day), spring holidays are one week long and are held on different terms depending from which region the student is and after the year report 2 months holidays

• on secondary schools, students of the 4th grade have one week off called “Saint week” before the school-leaving exam, that every student of the secondary school has to take (except some vocational schools)

• during the school year, every school has its own days off (e.g. concerts, sports days, theatres and other actions)

• on basic schools, secondary schools and universities students go on week-long summer or winter courses, with their teachers, where they learn to ski or go swimming, biking and hiking in summer

• the main subjects that most of the schools teach are maths, Czech language, foreign language, geography, history, physics, chemistry, biology …, but they differ on each secondary schools

Comparing schools in UK/USA and CR

• the biggest difference between our and British school system is, that pupils in CR after 9 years of compulsury education can enter the high school for 4 years and in UK after 11 years of compulsury education they take only 2 years of ‘A’ levels – I think that someone who wants to enrol at a university is much better prepared from the 4-years high school than from 2-years ‘A’ levels

• in CR the better and worse students are together only for 9 years and than they separate, but in UK they have to be mixed for 11 years – I think that the good students must suffer

• children in UK enter the school at the age or 5 and in CR at the age of 6 or 7; I think in this point our system is better, because when children are 5, they are still too young to pay attention and they get quickly tired – that’s why they don’t like going to schools

• the British system is better in the length of compulsory education – during 11 years the pupils learn more than during 9 years

• on the contrary to the USA, students in CR don’t take only written tests, but also oral exams – it is good for expressing; Czech students also learn more theory than make experiments; it has advantages and of course disadvantages too, but basicly I think we are better prepared for studies on the university