The draft Education Law introduced several novelties; and one of them has been the provision stipulating that marks in some selected subjects at primary school be one of the criteria for being accepted to study at secondary professional school with final exam, or at secondary grammar schools.
On October 22, the Constitutional Court (CC) at its closed session found that part of the Law on Education and some other provisions does not comply with the right to education guaranteed by the Constitution, the court’s spokeswoman Anna Pančurová informed the SITA newswire.
The Constitutional Court was addresses on April 24, 2013, by a group of MPs, contesting the provisions of the bill and other regulations stipulating that the applicant for study at secondary grammar school (or secondary professional school with a final exam) must not have a worse average of marks in the second semester of the eighth grade and the first semester in the ninth grade at primary school than a 2, and for the secondary vocational school an average not worse than 2.75.
MPs suggested that these provisions violate the constitution, as they intervene with the constitutional right to access to education, and introduce different rules for primary school students. The children who fail to fulfil the criterion are effectively excluded form study at some secondary schools – and thus also college or university.
(Source: SITA)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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