Projects promoting professional development of pedagogical staff

In 2021, 1 002 upper secondary and tertiary vocational schools (SŠ and VOŠ) were implementing projects to support pedagogical staff. This totals 70.6% of SŠ and VOŠ.

Teacher professional education is supported mainly through the schemes on further education of pedagogues by means of:

1. CPD courses, with teacher participation appropriate to the selected specialisation; the CPD courses must be at least 8 hours long, with no maximum length limit (the most popular schemes focus on foreign languages and personal and social development);
2. involvement of practitioners (experts from practice) in teaching: a practitioner leads 12 teaching hours together with the teacher, and then there are another 18 hours allocated for the joint preparation of the practitioner with the teacher and subsequent evaluation; this scheme is implemented by 412 SŠ and 52 VOŠ;
3. teacher internships at employers, where teachers participate in an internship of 40 hours at a firm/company/institution and another 20 hours are allocated for the preparation of the internship and its evaluation; the scheme is implemented by 349 SŠ and 58 VOŠ;
4. tandem teaching, the collaboration of two teachers who jointly prepare and implement 12 hours of teaching (classes), with another 12 hours reserved for preparation and reflection on the experience; the scheme is implemented by 345 SŠ and 23 VOŠ;
5. the school-employer cooperation coordinator, where the coordinator mediates contacts between the school (pedagogues/students) and employers by means of joint workshops and round tables; the scheme is implemented by 329 SŠ and 45 VOŠ.

The Amendment to the Act on Pedagogical Staff was approved by the Chamber of Deputies in January 2021. Subsequently, in March 2021, the Senate returned the Amendment to the Chamber of Deputies with several amendment proposals. The Amendment to the Act was not re-incorporated into the Chamber of Deputies' debate by the end of the parliamentary term and, at the end of 2021, it was returned to the legislative process due to the new composition of the Chamber of Deputies and the new Government.

The obligation for pedagogical staff to partake in further education during their in-service teaching activity is stipulated in Act No. 563/2004 Coll. The MŠTM is currently granting accreditations to all educational programmes within the system of further education for pedagogical staff. Accreditations will be valid for three years.

During the 3-year period of 2019-2021, the MŠMT granted 25,018 accreditations. The largest share of these comprises accreditations of the so-called continuing education (teachers´ CPD), i.e. shorter programmes through which teaching staff renew, update and supplement their qualifications.

In May 2022 a call under the new operational programme Jan Amos Komenský for projects with simplified reporting was announced for upper secondary and tertiary professional schools. Pedagogical staff can attend both accredited and non accredited CPD courses. Also the teacher internships at employers were supported in this call.

Exclusion of continuing education from the accreditation process is one of the key objectives of the Amendment to the Act on Pedagogical Staff which has been in the legislative process since 2017. The intention of the MŠMT is to pay more attention to qualification and specialisation studies, which prove to have the greatest impact on graduates and, consequently, also on students.

The amendment to the Act on Pedagogical Staff, approved in June 2023, brought changes to the accreditation of educational programmes within the CPD system of pedagogical staff, effective from September 1, 2023. Educational programmes aimed at deepening professional qualifications (continuing education) have been removed from the accreditation regime. Teaching staff is still obliged to renew, maintain, and supplement their qualifications. These so-called 'in-service' training programmes will continue to be recognised as part of continuing education for teaching staff and remain an important component of their professional development.

At the same time, accreditation for in-service training programmes is no longer a requirement for accessing funds from subsidy programmes, particularly from the so-called simple scheme projects of the Jan Amos Komenský Operational Programme or calls under the National Recovery Plan.

It is now also possible to design and implement accredited training programmes that can be classified as further training for pedagogical staff. In practice, this offers an additional financing opportunity for these programmes.

The first round of simple project schemes under the Jan Amos Komenský Operational Programme (OP JAK) covered the period from 2022 to 2023, with an overall budget of CZK 2 billion and supporting 1 066 applications. This round was utilised by more than 83% of Czech schools to support collaborative learning, improve the quality of teaching and develop teachers' competences. The calls were specifically aimed at primary schools, upper secondary schools, and tertiary professional schools. The second call for secondary and tertiary professional schools was announced at the end of September.

The simple schemes of the OP JAK are one of the key calls in the field of regional education. The high uptake rate of the call and the participation rate of eligible applicants indicate the popularity of this simplified project format. This format will enable schools to continue activities that support education, strengthen support teaching positions in education and develop teaching staff in order to improve the quality of education and ensure the success of every pupil.

The second call of OP JAK, shows significant differences compared to the first.

The second call of OP JAK, running from September 2024 to November 2025, with an overall budget of CZK 2 billion, shows significant differences compared to the first. Selected staff positions, having undergone a challenging process of institutionalisation, will be funded according to predefined parameters from the state budget as entitlement positions. These positions include school psychologists and special educators, which are already established and funded in primary schools. However, similar frameworks for these roles are primarily being developed in secondary schools, where the institutionalisation process is still underway. This new call will serve to validate a model for institutionalising school psychologist and special educator support positions in secondary schools and conservatories, ensuring their long-term stability. Once the model is evaluated and the legislation is adjusted, national funding for these roles is anticipated.

The Long-term Plan for Education and Development of the Education System of the Czech Republic 2023-2027 supports international education as an effective tool and measure for educational development. It seeks to raise the visibility of foreign internships and courses as a form of CPD for pedagogical staff and supports the recognition of such professional development of teachers, both at the level of school founders and individual schools through participation in Erasmus + projects.

From 1 January 2024, head teachers are obliged to appoint an induction teacher to support new teachers during their induction period, in accordance with the amendment to the Act on Pedagogical Staff. In particular, the induction teacher shall guide the novice teacher methodically during the adaptation period, evaluate his/her direct teaching activities and the performance of work related to direct teaching activities on an ongoing and regular basis, and familiarise him/her with the school's operations and documentation. The induction teacher should be an experienced teacher and should also have appropriate mentoring competences for working with adults. Methodological support is provided by the Ministry of Education and the National Pedagogical Institute to support the adaptation period. The National Pedagogical Institute also prepared an interactive training programme in the scope of 28 hours.