EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy organized another Civil Servant Mobility Program study trip from October 23 to 29, 2016. The project, realized within the Think Visegrad platform, was focused on sharing experience in the field of educational management in the Czech Republic with a selected civil servants from Ukraine. The group consisted of four directors of schools in various Ukrainian regions and two local officials who deal with the topic of education.
The program consisted of many meetings and on-site visits. The program started by a welcome dinner on Sunday evening, where Jana Straková, researcher at the Centre of research and development of education of Charles University in Prague, introduced the program and gave a brief overview of the topic. More in-depth discussion about the Czech educational system continued on Monday morning, when the group met with Jindřich Kitzberger, director of private Montesorri school and former assistant director of the Minister of education. In the afternoon, Václav Trojan of the Centre of Educational Management at Charles University presented the Czech system of education for school directors and shared his comparison with the Ukrainian one. The day was concluded by a visit to the Academy of Crafts, technical high school, where the guests were greeted by director Drahoslav Matonoha.
On Tuesday, the group visited elementary school in Karlovy Vary region, unique for its status of community school co-founded by three municipalities that are sharing the costs. Director Jitka Topičová was joined by the head of the local government for the afternoon discussion session. In the end of the day the group had an opportunity for sightseeing in Karlovy Vary.
Wednesday's program started at the Central Bohemian Region Government office, where the representatives of the Education department introduced the role of founder of secondary schools in the region. In the afternoon, Ondřej Andrys of Czech School Inspection introduced the role of his institution in ensuring the quality of education in the Czech Republic.
Zdeněk Pracný from Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports talked more generally about setting the Framework of educational plans in the national context in the first session on Thursday morning. Later on, Marcela Štiková introduced the Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic and the role of municipalities in the establishing elementary schools. The study program was concluded by a meeting with Michaela Vencová of Prague 1 and Eva Houdová from the Prague city hall who talked about the financial management of the schools established by their respective offices.
Friday was devoted to the evaluation of the program and after a farewell lunch, the group was taken on a guided tour through the historical centre of Prague.
According to the evaluations, all guests were highly satisfied with both the relevance and content of the meetings – on the scale from 1 to 5 (1- excellent, 5-unsatisfactory) all meetings ranked between 1 and 1.5 on average in both categories. Our guests also appreciated the accompanying program, such as the welcome dinner and guided tour and were very satisfied with the choice of hotel and restaurants. Organizers and translator also received excellent feedback.