Education Minister Mikulas Bek intends to push for English to be compulsory from at least the first grade in Czech schools, with a second foreign language to be added from the sixth grade, as part of a revision of the Framework Education Programme (RVP) for Czech primary schools, he wrote on social media on Monday.
Bek (STAN) added that he also wanted to ensure that secondary schools had an adequate offer of second foreign languages.
Currently, a first foreign language is compulsory from the third grade, and a second foreign language from the eighth grade at the latest. Elementary schools in the Czech Republic have nine grades in total.
“For our schoolchildren, knowledge of foreign languages is a huge advantage in their future professional and personal lives,” said Bek. “In many European countries, children start (learning) languages earlier and the required level of language competence is higher.”
Moreover, Bek said he would also like the required level of foreign language proficiency to be higher. Specifically, he said the required level of English for ninth graders should be raised from A2 to B1, and the required foreign language proficiency for secondary school students should rise to B2 by the time of the school-leaving exam.
RVPs do not specify what is to be taught in each year, but state what pupils should be introduced to at different stages of education and what they should know at the end. Schools create their own curricula according to the framework programmes.
According to previous statements from Bek, the changes his office is working on to the RVP should be ready by the end of this year. He said the results of Czech students in international comparisons, which he considers alarming, should serve as a justification for the changes.
The curriculum review includes discussions on whether to retain the requirement of an additional foreign language at primary schools. Recently, Bek said this had not yet been decided.
In response, some foreign language teachers, representatives of the French-Czech Chamber of Commerce, the Czech-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry and some faculties of education sent Bek an open letter in the spring objecting to the decision-making process, and arguing that second foreign languages should remain compulsory in the primary school curriculum.
The government promised changes to the education system in its policy statement. Revisions to the existing RVPs have been under discussion since about 2016.
