Foreigners in the CR

Unless stipulated by the law otherwise, foreigners in the Czech Republic enjoy the same rights and duties in education as the Czech citizens do. The right to education is based on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The education of foreigners is governed by the following legal regulations of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of the CR:

- Act No. 561/2004 Sb., on pre-school, basic, secondary, higher professional and other education (Education Act), Section 20 Education of foreigners;

- Instruction No. 21 153/2000-35 of the Minister of Education, Youth and Sport of the CR, on the Provision of Czech Language Courses for Refugees (of 4 June 2000, effective as of 1 July 2000, published in the Journal of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of the CR No. 7/2000).

The education of foreigners is based on the following principles:

1) Persons, who are not citizens of the Czech Republic and are rightfully staying on the territory of the Czech Republic, have an access to basic, secondary, and higher professional education on the same conditions as citizens of the Czech Republic, including education during their stay in reform and correctional school establishments;

2) Persons, who are citizens of another Member State of the European Union as well as their family members have an access to education and education services on the same conditions as citizens of the Czech Republic;

3) For pupils, who are children of a person-citizen of another Member State of the European Union, and who on the territory of the Czech Republic (where such a person performed or is performing working activity in employment or self-employment or is studying on the territory of the Czech Republic or obtained on the territory of the Czech Republic the right to stay due to another reason) are staying for a long-term and are fulfilling their compulsory school attendance according to the Education Act, the Regional Office competent according to the place of residence of the pupil in cooperation with the founder of the school will ensure:

- Free preparation for their inclusion into basic education, which will include teaching of Czech language adopted to the needs of those pupils;
- When possible, in cooperation with the country of origin of the pupil, support of teaching of his mother tongue and culture of the country of origin, which will be coordinated with usual education in an ordinary school.

Regional Offices ensure preparation of teachers, who will ensure that education.

The education of foreign citizens at public universities is regulated by Act No. 111/1998 Sb., on Universities and on the Amendments of Other Acts (University Act). The foreigner studies under the same conditions as a Czech student does. However, he/she shall pay a fee for study under bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral programmes, if the university runs a study programme in a foreign language.

Methodological notes on the tables

Unless stated otherwise, the data refer to schools established by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of the CR, by municipalities, regions, private or church founders, and in the case of secondary and higher professional schools also by other ministries. Tables for universities are excluding schools established by the Ministry of Defence of the CR and the Ministry of the Interior of the CR. Data for universities from the school year 2004/05 are in natural persons, data for the period before 2004/05 are for total number of studies unless stated otherwise.

Like in the previous year, individual types of schools comprise data including schools for pupils with special education needs.

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Nursery schools

Share of foreigners at nursery schools is 1.0% of all children attending nursery schools. An absolute majority of children - foreigners at nursery schools come from Viet Nam (36.0%), the Ukraine (17.9%), Slovakia (15.7%) and Russian Federation (6.4%).

Basic schools

Foreigners account for 1.4% of pupils at basic schools in the Czech Republic, mostly citizens of Viet Nam (27.6%), citizens of the Ukraine (22.0%), citizens of Slovakia (18.1%), and citizens of Russian Federation (7.3%).

Secondary schools

As far as secondary education is concerned, the share of foreign students is 1.0%. They are especially citizens of Viet Nam (23.3%), Ukraine (22.5%), Slovakia (15.3%), and Russian Federation (11.4%).

Performing arts schools

In total, 112 foreigners are studying at performing arts schools; their share in the total number of pupils studying at performing arts schools is 3.2%. Most often they are citizens of Slovakia (39.3%), Ukraine (16.1%), and Russian Federation (9.8%).

Higher professional schools

The total number of foreigners studying at higher professional schools has decreased to 313 during the last few years. It is related also to the overall drop of pupils at higher professional schools. The foreign pupils are mostly enrolled in initial study and a little more than a third take distance study courses.

Most of them go to higher professional schools in Praha (35%) and in the Moravskoslezský Region (24%).

The foreigners study most frequently economic subjects and health services. They make up 1.1% of all pupils at higher professional schools and are mostly citizens of Slovakia (60,5 %).

Universities

Most foreigners study at universities. Since academic year 2001/02 their number at Czech universities has more than tripled. They take bachelor’s and master’s education programmes full-time and account for 7.6% of all university students.

Understandably, the number of students depends on the number of new enrollees (enrolled for the first time) in individual years. Foreign students make up 8.7% of all students first enrolled to universities. Of the total number of university graduates, 5.7% are foreigners.

Most foreigners attend universities in Praha and Brno, they are mostly students from the Slovak Republic. After the year 2000 an increase was recorded for the numbers of students coming from the countries of succession of the former Soviet Union (Russian Federation, the Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, etc.). Rather big amount of students comes from Viet Nam, the United Kingdom, Poland, and Germany.