Czech School Inspection detects gaps in education among tens of thousands of students

According to a Czech School Inspection report, at least 36,500 elementary school and 18,000 high school students have serious gaps in their education. Inspectors believe that at least one whole academic year will be needed to remove these deficiencies, the Czech News Agency reported on Wednesday.

On average, one in 38 primary school pupils, one in 20 secondary school pupils and one in 22 high school students do not have the skills that they are expected to reach by their age. The estimates are based on a representative study conducted among thousands of school headmasters and teachers.

The highest number of students with insufficient knowledge was registered in the Ustí nad Labem, Moravian-Silesian, Karlovy Vary and Hradec Králove regions.

Children in Czechia were studying from home roughly from October of 2020 to May 2021, due to the coronavirus epidemic. This had a serious impact on the education of a whole generation of students, according to the report. School inspectors believe that the cause may not just be the lack of long-distance learning technologies or low motivation among students and their parents. Rather, it is the different character of long-distance learning, which benefited some students but could have led to apathy and procrastination among others.

According to the inspectors, the impact of the long-distance learning period could cost the state hundreds of billions of crowns.