Compulsory education in the Czech Republic begins with primary school at age 6, continuing through middle and then secondary education, until ages 15-16. 

Six-year secondary schools are either general, preparing students for university education, or technical. Upper secondary education comprises four years (grades 10-13) and is not mandatory. Secondary vocational/technical education, which is more prevalent, provides an alternative to general upper secondary schools that prepare students for university study. In 2022, over 68% of students in upper secondary schools were in the vocational track, compared to the European Union average of 49%. 

Beyond secondary schooling, there are tertiary professional schools, universities offering degree programs at all levels and non-university institutions typically providing only bachelor’s programs. Charles University in Prague (aka University of Prague), founded in 1348, was the first university in Central Europe, and one of the oldest universities in the world in continuous operation. Its 17 faculties include law and medicine. 

SDG 4

The Czech Republic ranks 10th out of the 167 countries ranked on progress toward the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals.

On SDG 4, Quality Education, however, Czechia still faces significant challenges, with its score moderately improving but insufficient to meet the goal. Major challenges remain in mathematics, particularly the impact of socioeconomic status on performance. Trends are stagnating, and the share of underachievers in mathematics is actually worsening rather than improving.

Upper Secondary and Tertiary Education Attainment

The OECD reports (2024) that 80% of OECD countries prioritized upper secondary education (“high school” in some countries) for their young adults from 2016 to 2023. In the Czech Republic, the proportion of 24–34-year-olds without upper secondary education increased by 2% (to 8%) during that same period. However, this means that 92% of these young adults had successfully completed upper secondary school, which is better than the OECD average.

Attaining upper secondary education has a clear impact on employability. Only 60% of Czech youth without upper secondary education were employed, compared to 83% employment for those with upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary qualifications. The difference is even more striking for young women: 44% of young women without upper secondary education were employed as compared to 75% of the young men.

At the tertiary education level, attainment for young women in this same age group is considerably greater than for men, 41%, as compared to 27%. Yet employment rates for women with tertiary qualifications are just 66%, compared to 94% for men.

Spending on Higher Education

For 2021, the World Bank reported the Czech Republic’s educational expenditures to be 10.9% of government expenditures and 4.8% of its GDP. This compares to 13.8% and 3.8%, respectively, for the world (2022). 

In February 2023, the Czech Rectors Conference published its concern about a decline in funding for higher education institutions (HEIs), which “leads to a real brain drain from the HEIs environment in the Czech Republic.” The following September, the Council of Higher Education Institutions joined the Rectors Conference in a joint statement about the “unsatisfactory state of financing of public higher education in the Czech Republic,” pointing out that the Czech Republic was underfunded, especially in comparison to other OECD countries. 

Funding became an even more visible issue two months later, which saw demonstrations and a strike by multiple Czech tertiary faculties, claiming systemic underfunding of higher education, low wages and poor working conditions. 

For comparison, although the most recent available statistics are outdated, the World Bank reports that Czech tertiary expenditures as a % of total government expenditures on education were 13% (2016) as compared to 22% globally (2013). 

Higher Education: The Future

A year later, in the fall of 2024, the Czech Government’s draft budget for 2025 approved increased support for universities in the amount of CZK 1 billion ($47.4 million). 

In addition to increased funding, the Czech Republic is addressing higher education in its strategic planning for the future. This is enshrined in its Strategic Plan of the Ministry for Higher Education for the Period from 2021, developed within the framework of the priorities of the country’s Strategy for the Education Policy of the Czech Republic Up to 2030+. 

– Staff Reports

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