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a shortfall of about 1,000 enrollees in 1972 and, further, some 1,300 slots scheduled for boys had to be filled with girls. In response to these and related problems, educational authorities have concluded that the basic terms surrounding apprentice training might have to be altered substantially in order to improve the wage and career benefits of skilled occupations and to provide increasingly larger numbers of young blue-collar workers with the opportunity to acquire a secondary and even higher education. Beyond this, authorities have also claimed that inadequate political indoctrination aggravated the defects in the apprentice training system.
The more intellectually talented 9th grade graduates enter one of approximately 700 basic and secondary vocational schools or go into one of approximately 350 general secondary (academic) schools. The basic vocational school curriculum, which is from 2 to 3 years' duration, is designed to develop lower grade technical or administrative personnel for direct entry into the work force without acquiring the School Leaving Certificate: however, college entrance qualifications can be acquired through off-hours courses in the system of Secondary Schools for Workers. The secondary vocational school curriculum is designed to provide graduates with a higher level of skill than that obtained in the basic vocational school. The schools are generally of 4 years' duration, and graduation leads to a School Leaving Certificate. Training is offered in such fields as mining, geology, machine industry, electrical engineering, food processing, construction, agriculture and forestry, public administration, public health, and pedagogy. Of some 70,000 graduates of secondary vocational school, in 1971, the largest group—about 20,000—had specialized in public administration; other fields represented by 5,000 or more graduates were machine industry, public health, agriculture and forestry, and electrical engineering.
General secondary schools, called gymnasiums and equivalent to the gymnasium in the classic European educational system, have traditionally been viewed as the principal channel of educational advancement and a prime factor in social mobility. Prior to 1968 the general secondary school comprised a 3-year course but was lengthened to 4 years in response to criticism of some educators that a broader and more thorough curriculum was needed to prepare the student for university level study. Graduates from both the secondary vocational and secondary general school quality to take the examination for entry into an institution of higher learning or to apply for middle level civil service positions or high level technical jobs.
Higher education in Czechoslovakia is provided at general universities, technical universities and colleges, teacher training colleges, and advanced schools of economics, of agriculture, and of art. The state also recognizes seven theological faculties but separates them statistically from other higher educational institutions. The number of higher education institutions has fluctuated since 1950, reaching a high of 51 in 1961/62 and a low of 35 in 1966/67; in 1971/72 there were 37. This does not reflect an absolute decrease in institutional facilities but rather a merging of some faculties. There are four general universities—the prestigious Charles University (founded in 1348), Palacky University (1573); J.E. Purkyne University (formerly Masaryk University, 1919), and Komensky (Comenius) University (1919). The most prestigious of the technical colleges is the Czech Institute of Technology founded in 1707. Most schools, except for those specializing in only one field, are divided into faculties that, in turn, are divided into departments. Most degree courses require 5 years to complete; however, some technical courses require an additional ½ year, and a medical degree requires 6 years.
The number of students at institutions of higher learning has almost trebled since the early 1950's reaching a high of 145,000 in 1965/66 and then declining to 128,000 in 1971/72, but the rate of attrition of students during the college course has been a constant source of disappointment to educational authorities. Graduations in the late 1960's and early 1970's fell short of initial enrollments by almost one-third. The attrition rate in the technical disciplines has been as high as 50%.
The traditional European prestige attaching to the liberal professions still pervades Czechoslovakia's social value system manifesting itself in the chronic oversupply of applicants for the liberal faculties and the undersupply for the engineering faculties. A breakdown of applicants for admission to institutions of higher learning for the 1972/73 school year shows that the target for mining engineering fell short by 65%, mechanical engineering by 30%, chemical engineering by 20%, and electrical engineering by 5%, while the target for natural sciences was exceeded by 44%, medicine by 63%, social sciences by 174%, and arts by 572%.
Students, including leading Communist members of the Czechoslovak Youth Union—then the official party-sponsored mass organization designed to organize and control youth activities—played a vanguard role in the reform movement. Targets of student criticism included the practice of prohibiting
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110015-7
