Prague, Jan 3 (CTK) – Men and women should be represented more equally in Czech science and research, it ensues from the Education Ministry’s plan for 2018-2020 that the new government approved on Wednesday.
In its plan, the ministry outlines several fields for the state to improve, including the choice of professional career by children and the inequality of the wages of men and women with university education.
The plan of the development of human resources and the gender equality in research, development and innovations has been based on data provided by various recent studies and figures released by the Czech Statistical Office (CSU).
They show that girls and boys formally have equal access to education in the Czech Republic, but the reality is different.
In fact two “types of education have been segregated based on the gender principle and the gender segregation intensifies with the rising level of education,” the plan says.
Its main goal is to secure a more even representation of men and women in the branches where they are represented very unevenly now, such as the technical sciences, where male students prevail (66 percent), and the teaching and social services branches with a crushing prevalence of female students (85 percent).
Various initiatives can change this, the plan says, but it also points out a persisting pay inequality between men and women.
It supports the popularisation of science and the mediation of its results to the public with the aim to raise its prestige.
“The sharing of scientific knowledge substantially raises the society’s resistance to irrational manipulation of any kind,” the plan says.
It pays attention to the working conditions in research institutes and to their support for the staff’s career and professional development.
Furthermore, the state must support the combination of researchers’ work and their role of parents, and it should deal with ethical codes and the conditions of scientists’ retirement, also in order to facilitate young researchers’ rise.
The plan is based on the National policy of research, development and innovations that the previous cabinet approved in 2016 with the aim to secure international competitiveness of Czech science.
