Czech Television Sama doma show

What’s most important isn’t knowing everything, but being able to discuss things, says JANA KOPECKÁ, the first-ever winner of the Global Teacher Prize Czech Republic. She’s been teaching the junior years at Kunratice Primary School in Prague for thirty years now, and one of the things she talks about is how the education system has changed during this time.

On Friday, September 8, the Czech Television Studio ČT24 show discussed the topic of the International Literacy Day. It featured Project Director of Pomáháme školám k úspěchu [Helping Schools Succeed], Hana Košťálová, who spoke about illiteracy both globally and in the Czech Republic, about developing reading literacy and critical literacy, and about the experiences gained from the Helping Schools Succeed project.

Deník (Severočeský region) Most [INTERVIEW] - An educational institution will obtain seven million crowns from a foundation over the next five years. Most’s Eighth Primary School is the only one in the Ústí Region slated to obtain seven million crowns from The Kellner Family Foundation over the course of five years for the purposes of improving tuition. The Foundation is building a regional network of model public schools with a better background in the Czech Republic.

At a glance, the Primary School in Horka nad Moravou in the Olomouc area is a school like any other in a larger rural community. However, just by entering any of its 17 classrooms you will find that the local 430 children smile more than many of their peers in other schools. The teachers are more relaxed. “We are a standard primary school, yet we do many things differently, we have many rituals and we experience a lot of small things that, while they may not be apparent, build good relationships. In addition, teachers can convey the good atmosphere to students and parents,” says Kateřina Glosová, director of the school.

The Kellner Family Foundation included three public primary schools in the Helping Schools Succeed project. These are the 8th Primary School in Most in the Ústí Region, Slatiňany Primary School in the Pardubice Region and the Husova 17 Primary School and Preschool in Brno in the South Moravia Region. As a result, Helping Schools Succeed currently involves about 760 teachers and, through them, some 8,400 students.

Children have to, gradually, acquire the knack for reading with the help of something that attracts their interest, and associate reading with pleasant experiences; only then will it be easier for them to learn to comprehend more complicated texts, says teacher Hana Košťálová.

They have been “dancing” between the teacher’s desk and the blackboard for about a quarter of a century. And according to first-level teacher and deputy principal Jitka Palanová and instructional coach Jana Štybnarová from the Zdice Elementary School, quite a lot has changed in Czech classrooms over that time. How has teaching adjusted to an era when almost any first year schoolchild can find anything on the Internet within seconds? How do today’s pupils differ from those twenty-five years ago?

More than 400 teachers and some 6,000 students are involved in the Helping Schools Succeed project, which pursues the aim of putting in place conditions for teachers that will help them develop every child in the classroom. The project is being carried out under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, and it is financially sponsored by The Kellner Family Foundation.

Beginning in the next school year, another three elementary schools will join the Helping Schools Succeed project. They will thus be given a unique chance to improve teaching quality and enhance the individualized approach to students. The project is financed by The Kellner Family Foundation, a family foundation of Mr. and Mrs. Kellner. Last year, the foundation granted more than CZK 35 million to select schools. Over the five years the project has been in existence, 300 teachers from 50 public elementary schools have obtained assistance to the benefit of more than 5,000 students.

Overcrowded classes and inexperienced young teachers. What can be done about it? Tandem teaching could be a solution to both.