News

The recently appointed Czech minister of education, Mikuláš Bek, says there is a major gap between supply and demand at secondary schools.

Speaking on Tuesday, Mr. Bek said many people had been dismayed by the recent first round of admissions tests to secondary schools, describing the system as belonging to the last century. He said making secondary school education more general could help matters.

Many children have struggled to find a place at secondary schools, in part due to the fact there is a higher than usual number of ninth-graders in the population.

Two neo-Nazi arsonists convicted of firebombing a Roma family’s home in 2009 have been released early from prison. Václav Cojocaru and Ivo Müller got out on probation on Tuesday after serving 13 years of a 20-year sentence for multiple attempted racially motivated murder. A district court ruled they could get early release last week.

The attack in the Moravian town of Vítkov left three members of the Roma family injured. Then two-year-old Natália was left with burns on 80 percent of her body and without three fingers. She has since undergone over 100 operations.

Two others convicted over the crime remain in prison.

A Czech medic who helped save Ukrainian soldiers has died, months after sustaining a serious injury in Donbas. Known as “Taylor”, the medic was hit by shrapnel in early March and later transferred back to Czechia. The young volunteer was the founder of Phoenix Project, which gave basic medical training to thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians. He himself is credited with saving the lives of many soldiers on the country’s Eastern Front.

The Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was aware of two other Czech volunteers who had died in Ukraine, one in June last year and one this March.

Prime Minister Petr Fiala has said his government will not succumb to pressure from trade unions to water down the austerity package aimed at slashing the country’s growing state deficit. Following four hours of talks with trade union leaders on Monday the prime minister denounced the union’s strike alert as “irresponsible”. He said the government was open to arguments and was ready to make minor alterations to the package, such as reviewing individual discontinued subsidies, but stressed that this must not affect the overall volume of the planned cuts.