Prague, March 4 (CTK) – Over one half of parents do not think that they have enough money to provide quality education to their offspring, although the educational system is free in the Czech Republic, daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes Saturday, citing the figures from a poll.
The poll was commissioned by the NGO Good Family and conducted by the IPSOS polling institute, MfD writes.
The poll was carried out on a sample of 520 families from across the Czech Republic whose children attend an elementary or secondary schools, it adds.
The view that finances are decisive for the quality of education, due to which they cannot afford a good school, is mostly held by the families in the Karlovy Vary, Plzen and Zlin regions, MfD writes.
On the other hand, the educational system is mostly trusted by the parents in the Liberec Region and in Prague, it adds.
The results also differ depending on the education attained by the parents themselves.
A total of 100 percent of parents with elementary education believe that they do not have enough money for a good school.
When it comes to the parents with higher education, the view is only held by one half of them, MfD writes.
This means that rather than reflecting the quality of schools attended by the children, the poll described the parents themselves, MfD writes.
“The results speak about the parents’ mentality and their approach,” Zdenek Soudny, chairman of Good Family, said.
The results suggest that the parents do not believe that a state-run school is the best choice for them.
If the parents believe that without money no breakthrough can be achieved and that they themselves do not have the money, social determinism starts working, Soudny said.
Instead of looking for the best possible option for their children’s future, the parents make do with the simplest solution, he added.
In fact, private schools only account for 2 percent of all schools in the Czech Republic.
Socially weak families often hamper their children’s ambitions for fear that they will be unable to pay the costs associated with prestigious schools, MfD writes.
To this, they adapt the selection of the school for their offspring, it adds.
“Very often not money, but stereotypes play the major role,” Soudny said.
Parents’ pessimism, coupled with financial fears, may be one of the reasons for the Czech Republic being regularly ranked among the countries in which a child’s success at school extremely depends on the parents’ education and social position, MfD writes.
This was also confirmed by large-scale international polls conducted by PISA and TIMMS groups whose results were published at the close of last year, MfD writes.
“Investments, not only financial, associated with the choice of a school and preparation for entrance examinations, play a vital role in the Czech Republic,” David Munich, from the Institute for Democracy and Economic Analysis (IDEA), is quoted as saying.
“No wonder that the family environment plays a bigger role for Czech teenagers at the age of 19 when they have to make up their mind on their career than in most OECD countries,” he added.
The parents who consider prestigious education financially unaccessible may be easily resigned, Soudny said.
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