At present, 3.2% of students at elementary schools are foreign. Photo credit: Freepik.
Prague, Dec 22 (CTK) – The number of children of foreigners at elementary schools in the Czech Republic rose by 7.6% in the past school year, to 30,543, not including the children of Ukrainian war refugees, according to data released by the Czech Statistical Office.
At present, 3.2% of students at elementary schools are foreign, while 10 years ago they represented 1.8% of students.
In kindergartens, the number of children of foreigners increased by about 2% compared to the 2020-21 school year. At secondary schools, the number of foreign students rose by more than 3%. One-third of the foreign children in kindergartens were from countries outside Europe and one-quarter were from Ukraine in the past school year. Foreign students at secondary schools mostly attended grammar schools and schools focusing on economics, administration, gastronomy and tourism.
Three-quarters of foreign children who attended elementary schools had permanent residence in the Czech Republic. The majority of these children came from countries outside the European Union, especially Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Vietnam and India; 8,172 of them were citizens of other EU countries.
In total, 964,571 children attended elementary schools in the country in 2021. Most often the foreign students were from Ukraine (31.6%), even when refugees were not counted, followed by students from Slovakia (19%), Vietnam (19%) and Russia (5.8%). The numbers of people from these countries in the Czech Republic is continuing to grow, according to the CSU.
