Methodology - Education of women and men, science and digitalisation

Data on education are received from sources of a workplace of the State Statistical Service of the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports. Except for universities, data are published for the school year and reported according to the status as at 30 September of the reference year.

Children/pupils/students in nursery schools up to higher professional schools are given as the number of studies (i.e., for example, when a pupil/student is enrolled in multiple study programmes or in multiple schools, he or she is counted multiple times in the relevant piece of data).

The numbers of teachers (including headmasters, their deputies, guidance counsellors, and vocational trainers or in the case of universities professors, readers, and other teaching staff) are converted to full-time equivalent persons.

Nursery schools provide early childhood education, which is organized for children usually from three to six years of age. Besides nursery schools, early childhood education is provided by preparatory classes at basic schools and a preparátory stage at special basic schools, both founded at basic schools (these children/pupils, however, are not included in the number of children in nursery schools nor in the number of pupils in basic schools).

Basic schools provide primary education, which is part of the compulsory school education. Children start their compulsory school education in the age of 6 years (or 8 years as a maximum in cases of children with postponed compulsory school education). The compulsory school education usually lasts for nine years: five years at the first stage and four years at the second stage of basic schools. Pupils may leave the basic school earlier and complete their compulsory school education in lower grades of several-year grammar schools or in an eight-year specialism of dance in conservatoires.

Secondary schools are designated for obtaining secondary education. It can be attained in schools teaching programmes of grammar schools, i.e. providing general education with an A-level examination and programmes of technical education in secondary schools, i.e. providing (lower) secondary education, secondary vocational education with an apprenticeship certificate, including shortened studies, secondary technical education with an A-level examination, including shortened studies, and follow-up courses.

Another type of schools are conservatoires, in which pupils can earn secondary education with an A-level examination, namely no sooner than after four years in full-time studies of a six-year education programme (for basic school leavers) or after eight years in full-time studies of an eight-year education programme in the specialism of dance (in the first four grades pupils admitted after the fifth grade of basic schools fulfil their compulsory school education). By passing the final (graduate) examination called “absolutorium” at a conservatoire a pupil receives higher professional education in a conservatoire.

Higher professional schools offer education in three-year up to three-and-half year fields (distance studies are lasting for up to four years) to graduates with an A-level examination. This type of education is completed by passing the final (graduate) examination called “absolutorium.

The system of schools providing higher education comprises public, private, and state universities. Information on public and private universities is drawn from the SIMS database (i.e. Union Information from Students´ Registers). Numbers of schools and students are reported according to the status as at 31 December and numbers of graduates for the whole school year. Data for two state universities founded by the Ministry of Defence (University of Defence) and by the Ministry of the Interior (Police Academy of the Czech Republic in Prague) are not included in the tables.

Students and graduates from public and private universities are published as headcount, i.e. each student is counted only once, including students studying concurrently in more universities or faculties. The total number of students and graduates from universities thus may differ from the sums for individual universities, types of education, or types of study programmes.

Characteristics of research and development (R&D) are surveyed by the Annual report (questionnaire) on research and development, which includes data on human and financial resources earmarked for R&D activities realized in the territory of the Czech Republic in respective sectors of R&D performance.

R&D indicators are usually measured and published, also at an international level, in four sectors of R&D performance (hereinafter referred to as sectors): the business enterprise sector, the government sector, the higher education sector, and the private non-profit sector. These sectors were defined based on the Classification of Institutional Sectors and Subsectors used in the national accounts (the European System of National and Regional Accounts (ESA 2010)) and definitions given in the Frascati Manual.

Persons employed in research and development, hereinafter only referred to as R&D personnel, comprise not only researchers who carry out R&D directly, but also auxiliary, technicians, professional, administrators, and other staff working at R&D workplaces in individual reporting units, who ensure direct services for those workplaces. R&D personnel do not include individuals performing indirect services for the relevant R&D workplace, such as operating the company canteen, security service, cleaning or security. The R&D personnel category includes all persons aged 15+ years paid in employment. The formal job attachment mainly refers to an employment contract, an agreement on work performance, and an agreement on work activity.

R&D personnel (R&D workers) are broken down according to the activity they perform to three categories. Researchers, who are engaged in the conception or creation of new knowledge, products, processes, methods, and systems or who manage such projects. Technicians and equivalent staff (technicians) who participate in R&D by performing scientific and technical tasks involving the application of concepts and operational methods. Other supporting staff in R&D are managers, administrative, secretarial, and clerical staff, and craftsmen participating in R&D activities or involved in such activities.

The number of R&D personnel is usually expressed (measured) by means of two main measurement units:

Headcount (HC) of R&D personnel refers to the registered number of persons fully or partially active (engaged) in research and development activities, employed in main or secondary employment as at the end of the reference year in entities, in which R&D is performed. Primarily in the higher education sector and partially also in the government sector, a huge amount of R&D personnel, especially researchers, have an employment contract in more entities concurrently. Therefore, in these sectors, the indicator is overestimated and does not provide the real number of persons working in R&D, but rather a number of jobs (working times) of persons performing R&D as at the end of the reference year. For both the national and international comparisons it is therefore recommended to use the below mentioned indicator.

Full-time equivalent (FTE) of R&D personnel – this indicator clearly describes the actual time devoted to R&D. One FTE equals one-year of full-time work of an employee, who is 100% engaged in R&D activities. The indicator is important mainly as for R&D personnel (R&D workers) whose job content also consists of other activities than R&D (e.g. academics), because it includes only that part of their working hours/times, which they devote to R&D activities.

Presented data on the use of information technologies are based on the Sample Survey on ICT Usage in Households and by Individuals, which is carried out on the sample of individuals (persons) aged 16+ years. Subsequently, the results are recalculated to the total monitored population of the Czech Republic. In order to be more representative, data from this survey, which are broken down by Region, are published as three-year moving averages.

Individuals (persons) using the Internet are such individuals (persons) who have used the Internet at least once anywhere in the last three months (e.g. at home, at work, at school) for whatever purpose (private or work) from any device (e.g. from a mobile phone, a computer, a smart TV).

Individuals (persons) using a mobile phone to access the Internet are individuals (persons) who stated that they had used a mobile phone to access the Internet at least once during the last three months. It does not matter whether the phone was a private one or an employer’s one as well as it does not matter what type of connection was used to access the Internet (mobile networks, WiFi).

Data on people connecting to the Internet via mobile data or WiFi on a mobile phone are also presented separately.

Connection via mobile data (paid data tariff from the mobile operator): the connection of the mobile phone to the Internet takes place via the mobile phone network. The user uses a chargeable connection from the provider/operator of mobile phone services. It can connect to the Internet where the contracted mobile phone networks have a signal.

Wireless connection - WiFi: the connection to the Internet takes place via a local (secured or unsecured) wireless network (WLAN). The operator of the transmitter can be a legal entity or a natural person. Typical examples are home wireless networks, local wireless networks of cafes, hospitals, airports, means of transport, schools, etc. WiFi connection is mostly free, but it can also be charged (e.g. at the airport) or limited in time.

Individuals (persons) purchasing on the Internet shall mean individuals (persons) who in the last three months purchased or ordered any goods or services on a website. A purchase shall mean a purchase for private purposes. This does not include a purchase for the employer, a school, or other organisations. Goods or services ordered were to be paid not only over the Internet, they could also be paid in cash on delivery or at personal pickup.

Individuals (persons) using internet banking are individuals (persons) who, at least once in the last three months, have used an internet portal enabling remote control and management of a bank account via the Internet (including access from a mobile phone via an application, so-called mobile banking). Internet banking enables, for example, checking the balance on a bank account, entering a payment order, permanent payments, setting ATM withdrawal limits, etc.

Individuals (persons) using social networks (social networking) on the Internet are those who in the last three months at least once logged into their user profile on such networks and used available services as, for example, browsing through posts of other users, communication with other users, and/or sharing of their own posts.