Graduation?
In 2011, 48.3 percent of citizens had a high school diploma or higher education containing a high school diploma. The statistical office also offers figures from 2019, according to which 61.7 percent of citizens over the age of 15 had a high school diploma. This suggests that roughly two out of three Czechs have a high school diploma. We are therefore an educated nation, more precisely a nation of students. The value of education varies over time and is perceived differently by different segments of society. In general terms, we know that many things could be improved, or at least modified, with regard to education. But most of the time this does not happen because higher priority is given to other matters. There is a long-standing debate about whether the examination at the end of secondary education should have a higher level of importance, a different structure or nature, a different content, a different formality, a different character. Virtually every incoming Minister of Education has had the ambition to do something about the GCSE. However, a new figure appeared on the scene with a startling announcement. The Prime Minister's abrupt step out of the portal right into the middle of the action is reminiscent of an actor's mistake, having entered the stage at the wrong moment. No one knows exactly why he says what he says, but no one laughs, what if that was the intention of the clever author. The statement presented could give away a possible punchline, although it is ill-considered, confused and amateurish. But there is no point. Just a belated attempt to talk into everything. Ideas are born and they are not only unexpected but dangerous. The consequences of a high-ranking politician's possible devotional obedience to a subaltern official's instruction can be considerable in this particular area; we may be decades in recovery. A dramatic change is already evident in the ability to adjust the appropriate intensity of the educational process so that young people are not overburdened on the one hand, but at the same time, once they are able to compete in Europe and the world. If there is still any competition, given the limited travel, the limited freedom of movement with vaccination cards and the general awareness that Czech youth have not been in school for practically a year. It was either a covid holiday or a vacation. But everything could ripen to more monstrous proportions. The current concept is a breeding ground for laziness, comfort, lethargy, passivity, boredom and the futile search for meaning in it all. Only stupidity, lies and waste are the sequel. Children need to be sent back to the schoolroom, back to the world of dictations, papers and homework. Give us something to talk to them about in the future when they visit us in the isolation ward of the local hospital. But enough joking around. Diluting our nation's hitherto solid level of knowledge by underestimating the necessity of schooling or making it more difficult to pass the test of adulthood is wrong and foolish.
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