Admission to a higher year of secondary school

Main information

The Education Act allows secondary the admission of applicants to a higher year than the first year of secondary education. The possibility of admission to a higher year of secondary school is conditional on providing evidence of your previous education, as your admission is decided by the principal during the admissions procedure, in which they assess whether evidence of your previous studies is sufficient for you to be admitted to the higher year of secondary school.

A typical example is if you termination your studies during the third year of secondary school in a field with a school-leaving examination (i.e. you have successfully completed two years of secondary school education) and after one year of work experience you want to return to study in the same or similar field of education.

Unlike a transfer, it does not exchange education at one secondary school for another, because you are not a student at any secondary school at that time. However, it may also be an uncommon case of choosing to attend two secondary schools during the course of your studies.

It is up to the principal to decide whether the years or parts of previous education you have completed are sufficient for you to be enrolled in a particular year.

The school principal may, after assessing evidence of your previous education, set as a condition of admission the successful passing of an entrance examination and determine its content, date, form and assessment criteria, in accordance with the framework education programme of the field of education to which you are applying. If the principle decides to admit you, the decision will specify the year in which you will be enrolled.

The principal may also decide that the evidence of previous education is fundamentally insufficient for admission and the applicant cannot be admitted. There is no legal right to be admitted to a higher year of secondary school, so the principal may not admit you for other reasons (such as capacity or organisation).

This applies to you if

This applies to you if you have completed part of your secondary education, left education during its course and would like to complete your education in the same or similar field.

Alternatively, it applies to you if you have had part of your education abroad and want to complete it at a secondary school in the Czech Republic.

When to use this service

You may submit the application for acceptance to a higher year of secondary school at any time if you want to continue unfinished secondary education,naturally with respect to the relevance of possible admission based on previous studies.

Unlike the admission procedure for the first years of secondary school, with strictly defined procedures and deadlines, there are no given deadlines or methods or forms of application for higher years.

Service settlement

What you need if you are using this service

There is no prescribed form for the application, which is essentially a submission stating who is making it (your name, surname, date of birth and place of residence, or other address for delivery if necessary), what issue is in question and what is proposed. With the application, you must submit your previous secondary school results and a certificate of medical fitness to study the given educational course, if medical fitness is required in the given course. Your medical fitness assessment will be issued by your general practitioner or specialised physician. The principal will give you information about health restrictions as they may apply to dozens of secondary vocational education courses.

The principal may also ask you for other documents to prove that you meet the admission criteria.

Where and how to solve this service

The application for admission to a higher year is sent by post or delivered in person to the principal of the secondary school.

Additional information

What is the benefit of this service

You will be admitted to secondary education and, if you successfully complete your studies, you may be awarded a school-leaving examination or an apprenticeship certificate, depending on the type of school.

Appeal options

Appeals against non-admission are made through the principal of the school concerned. Appeals against a decision not to admit an applicant are decided by the competent regional authority or Prague City Hall according to the location of the secondary school.