New school year begins

The new school year began in the Czech Republic on Monday for 1.2 million pupils of elementary and secondary schools as well as conservatories. Some 112,000 first-graders started school this year, which is 7,000 more than last September. Secondary schools, meanwhile, have 19,000 fewer students than last year. One of the changes introduced to school curricula is that pupils will have to take a second foreign language starting in the 8th grade of elementary schools.