HN: Czech private schools successful, but not universities

Prague, Sept 7 (CTK) - Top private secondary schools have been successful in the Czech Republic, but top private universities seem to have no place in the country, Hospodarske noviny (HN) daily writes Friday.

While the private secondary schools are attractive for students thanks to their high quality, private Czech colleges and universities seem to be waiting for those who were rejected by public universities, the paper says.

This is why their recruitment campaigns culminate only at the end of summer and the beginning of autumn, it adds.

"A number of private colleges were founded with the dream of immediate profits. But the owners did not realise that they need to have a more long-term reputation," said Vladimira Dvorakova, head of the Czech accreditation commission for universities.

Moreover, most professors who teach at the private universities have other jobs, HN writes.

Prestigious private grammar schools, on the other hand, carefully choose their teachers and they are not limited by any fixed salaries set by the Education Ministry.

"When I want a young talented chemistry teacher to stay at my school, I can offer him a wage comparable to what he would get in a brewery if he worked there," Vaclav Klaus Jr, head of the first Czech non-state school PORG, told the paper.

The key benefit of these private secondary schools are generous foundations of successful entrepreneurs that offer scholarships to cover the high tuition that provides enough money for the schools' heads, HN writes.

It says businessmen like Petr Kellner are willing to link their name only with top quality schools.

"Good private schools are based on being demanding and not just doing their utmost to seem attractive. They are strict, they fully concentrate on the students and are able to take unpopular steps, too," said MP Anna Putnova (TOP 09) who specialises in education.

But there are no top private universities in the country, the paper says.

Dvorakova even said she believes a country of a small size like the Czech Republic does not need an elite university. She said it might lead to the formation of an artificial elite and support favouritism.

"We need schools that will be offering quality bachelor, master and doctor's programmes. If anybody wants to raise education of Czechs, it is better to establish a scholarship fund and enable talented people to graduate from Harvard," Dvorakova told HN.

And this is exactly what benefactors like Kellner, Zdenek Bakala and Tomas Krsek do, the paper notes.

The equipment for a quality university costs more than for a quality secondary school. It is also more expensive to pay professors than to give high salaries to secondary school teachers, HN writes.

As a result, the study programmes of private Czech universities are limited to the humanities and economic fields, but no private investor focuses on medicine or chemistry.

"Secondary schools are smaller and more flexible and one needs just a simple project. But a simple idea is not enough to build a law faculty," PORG founder Ondrej Steffl told the paper.

The demand for top universities is not high either in the country, HN says.

"I still can have the most talented kids because they live in the Czech Republic with their parents. But there no reason at all why they should not move to Stanford or Harvard to get quality," Klaus Jr said.