How the official decision of special educational needs (SEN) in the country relates to the agreed EASIE operational definition
Operational definition
An official decision leads to a child/learner being recognised as eligible for additional educational support to meet their learning needs.
Criteria for an official decision of SEN
- There has been an educational assessment procedure involving a multi-disciplinary team
- The multi-disciplinary team includes members from within and external to the child’s/learner’s (pre)school
- There is a legal document which describes the support the child/learner is eligible to receive and which is used as the basis for planning
- The official decision is subject to a formal, regular review process
Educational assessment procedure in the country
Based on Decree No. 72/2005 Coll. on Providing Advisory Services in Schools and School Advisory Centres, as amended by Decree No. 197/2016 Coll., there is a complex psychological, educational and social assessment of children/learners in the pedagogical-psychological counselling centre (PPCC) or in the special pedagogical centre (SPC).
How the multi-disciplinary team is comprised in the country
The PPCC or SPC team consists of a psychologist, a special education teacher and a social worker. The team may request a consultation with a medical doctor.
The legal document used in the country to outline the support that the child/learner is eligible to receive
The legal documents are:
- Decree No. 27/2016 Coll. on the Education of Children, Pupils and Students with Special Educational Needs and Gifted Children, Pupils and Students, as amended by Decree No. 244/2018 Coll.
- Government Regulation No. 75/2005 Coll. on Specification of the Scope of Direct Pedagogical, Educational, Special Pedagogical and Pedagogical-Psychological Activities Carried out by Pedagogical Staff, as amended by Government Regulation No. 239/2015 Coll.
How the document is used as the basis for planning in the country
All support has to be in line with the above-mentioned legal documents.
The formal, regular review process in the country
In its recommendation, the school counselling institution (PPCC or SPC) sets out the period during which the provision of the support measure is necessary; this period will normally not exceed two years. The school counselling institution will state the date for re-assessment of special educational needs in its report and recommendations.
Proxy indicator for the 80% benchmark used for the country’s data collection
The EASIE work uses an 80% benchmark of inclusive education. This is defined as:
An inclusive setting refers to education where the child/learner with SEN follows education in mainstream classes alongside their mainstream peers for most – 80% or more – of the school week.
Proxy indicator used
Placement in a mainstream class implies over 80% or more.
Details on what the country proxy is
Placement in a mainstream class implies over 80% or more with non-disabled peers.
Why this proxy was used
If children/learners are included in mainstream classes, they ought to be educated in those classes for more than 80% of the time.
Difficulties in using the proxy
No difficulties.
Specific country issues in applying the proxy indicator
No specific issues.
Detailed description of what ‘out of formal education’ means within the country
The 2011 International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) defines ‘formal education’ as follows:
[…] education that is institutionalised, intentional and planned through public organizations and recognised private bodies and, – in their totality – constitute the formal education system of a country. Formal education programmes are thus recognised as such by the relevant national education or equivalent authorities, e.g. any other institution in cooperation with the national or sub-national educational authorities. Formal education consists mostly of initial education […] Vocational education, special needs education and some parts of adult education are often recognised as being part of the formal education system. Qualifications from formal education are by definition recognised and, therefore, are within the scope of ISCED. Institutionalised education occurs when an organization provides structured educational arrangements, such as student-teacher relationships and/or interactions, that are specially designed for education and learning.
(United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2011, International Standard Classification of Education ISCED 2011, p. 11).
Do the country definitions of formal, non-formal and informal education differ from the ISCED definitions?
No, the Czech Republic uses the same definitions as ISCED.
How specific cases – such as home-educated children/learners – are considered
Based on the School Act (Decree No. 561/2004 Coll. on Pre-School, Primary, Secondary, Tertiary and Other Education), children/learners of compulsory school age (ISCED 0 for five-year-olds, ISCED 1 and 2) must have an appropriate school where they sit verification examinations. Those children/learners are included in the statistics. For other children/learners, it is not obligatory to have such a school.
Children/learners who are considered out of formal education (meaning those not in formal education as defined by ISCED)
Out of education refers to children/learners who are educated in institutions that are not included in the register of schools and school facilities managed by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS) or who are out of any form of education. Data on out-of-education children/learners in the Czech Republic is not available.
How the population of children/learners who are out of formal education is defined
Some of them may be in some form of non-formal education. The problem is that there is no information about it and it is not possible to confirm that such an institution has any educational programme at all.
Provision of data on private sector education
The data collection covers all sectors of education, including numbers for the child/learner population in the private sector.
Private sector education in the country
This refers to institutions which provide education and which are founded by entities other than public ones (public founders include the MoEYS, other ministries, regional government and local government). Institutions have to be registered in the register of schools and school facilities managed by the MoEYS.
Child/learner population counted for each relevant question
All data on private education is included.
Specific issues with providing data on private sector education and how these have been overcome in the data collection
No specific issues.
ISCED level age ranges
The following are the most common (pre)school entrance ages and (pre)school leaving ages for the different ISCED levels:
Age range in the country at ISCED level 02 (pre-primary): 2 to 6
Age range in the country at ISCED level 1: 6 to 11
Age range in the country at ISCED level 2: 11 to 15
Age range in the country at ISCED level 3: 15 to 19
2012/2013 and 2014/2015 data background information
This country updated its background information for the 2016/2017 dataset. A PDF of the background information for the 2012/2013 and 2014/2015 datasets is available.