The Agency has presented the final recommendations and key priority action for promoting more inclusive and equitable education to the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MŠMT) and key stakeholders.
The final public online meeting took place on 15 July. The meeting was a part of the ‘Addressing Regional Disparities in the Czech Education System’ action, to promote more inclusive and equitable learning opportunities for all learners in the Czech Republic. The Agency has been co-operating on the action with MŠMT and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM) under the European Union’s Structural Reform Support Programme (SRSP).
Jan Mušuta, Director of the Regional Educational Management Department at MŠMT, opened the meeting. He explained the meeting’s aim to present the final outcomes of the action that has been running since 1 August 2019. He particularly highlighted the importance of the inputs from Czech stakeholders to the activities which made the implementation of the Action highly participatory. His welcome was followed by an input from Agota Kovacs, Policy Officer representing DG REFORM. She stressed how making the Czech education system more inclusive is important for better and more sustainable educational outcomes for all pupils, and highlighted the unique contribution that the project made to this long-term objective. She thanked the teams involved from the Czech ministries, regional authorities and the Agency for their excellent collaboration on the reform effort that needs to be upheld and embraced nationally.
After an overview of the SRSP Action in the Czech Republic from the Agency team, Agency representatives Amanda Watkins and Marcella Turner-Cmuchal presented the final recommendations and priority action. The 15 recommendations focus on measures to promote more inclusive education in the Karlovarský and Ústecký regions, but which can be applied across the Czech education system to promote more inclusive and equitable education for all learners. The proposed priority action focuses on structured stakeholder dialogue based on the significant issues highlighted by the recommendations.
MŠMT and Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs representatives gave their responses to the findings and their implications for future work, in close co-operation with Czech stakeholders. They also highlighted the increased co-operation between their two ministries as a result of implementing this work, which they hope to build on in the future.