New schools law passed

A new Education Act will reduce class sizes and increase the hours students spend learning languages. The reform, which will be phased in over three years, also promises to give schools and teachers greater freedom to add subjects and courses to a universal core curriculum designed by the Education Ministry, according to minister JŠn Mikolaj (at left).

Critics of the law doubted
whether quality language teachers could be found to work for low wages in the public sector, and noted that schools lacked the funds to build extra classrooms to allow class sizes to be reduced.