Secondary schools provide upper secondary education, which can be general or vocational. Secondary schools prepare pupils for further study or for the pursuit of a profession and work activities.
Upper secondary education in the Czech Republic takes place in secondary schools or conservatories. A wide range of disciplines of several levels covers the educational needs of virtually the entire population in the Czech Republic aged 15 to 19. Applicants who have completed compulsory education or who have successfully completed primary education and fulfilled other conditions may be admitted to secondary school on the basis of the admission procedure.
From the lower grades of the elementary school, only applicants/pupils are admitted to six-year (from the 7th grade) and eight-year (from the 5th grade) grammar schools and to the eight-year branch of the conservatory (5th grade).
Admission procedure for admission to secondary school or conservatory education
Secondary schools
Secondary schools mainly provide upper secondary education, which can be general or vocational (with a higher or lower share of the general component). The programs are two to four years. Secondary schools prepare pupils for further study or for the pursuit of a profession and work activities.
Upon successful completion of the relevant secondary school education programme, the following levels of education are attained (each secondary school can provide different degrees, disciplines and/or forms of education):
- Secondary education with a school-leaving examination
- secondary education with an apprenticeship certificate
- Secondary education (completed by a certificate)
For pupils who have already completed secondary education with a certificate of apprenticeship or a school-leaving examination and wish to obtain an additional or deeper qualification, secondary schools organise the following three types of study:
- extension studies (completed by graduation exam)
- shortened studies for obtaining secondary education with a school-leaving examination
- shortened studies for obtaining secondary education with a certificate of apprenticeship
Only secondary education with a school-leaving examination entitles graduates to enter the tertiary level of education (higher vocational or higher education). Multi-year grammar schools and eight-year conservatory courses, to which applicants from lower grades of primary schools are admitted, also provide general lower secondary education (corresponding to the second level of primary schools or a part thereof).
Conservatoires
Secondary education also takes place in conservatories. Conservatories provide art education:
- in six-year programmes, for pupils leaving compulsory education (corresponding to upper secondary and tertiary level of education)
- in eight-year programmes for 5th year primary school graduates (corresponding to lower secondary education, which is part of compulsory education, and upper secondary and tertiary level education)
Education in conservatories is attended by only a small number of pupils admitted on the basis of a talent test. As a rule, education is completed by graduation, the graduate receives a higher vocational education in a conservatory and the title of ‘diploma specialist’ (DiS.). The pupil can also pass the final year (or only) of the school-leaving examination, thus obtaining secondary education with the school-leaving examination and graduation in the conservatory.