Czech experts say new law will facilitate wrongful enrollment into "practical schools"

Some experts are concerned that an amendment to the Schools Act will facilitate the recommendation of children for enrollment into the "practical schools" even without a diagnosis of mild mental retardation. The most recent concerns have been prompted by new language in the bill discussing "impairment of cognitive abilities", but the same group of experts has criticized other formulations in the Government’s bill that they claim are ambiguous.

The Education Committee of the lower house brought its session to a halt last Thursday because MPs were unable to reach agreement on the form of the passage at issue. MPs warned representatives of the Czech Education Ministry that the term "impairment of cognitive abilities" occurs nowhere else in the law and could lead to problems with the European Commission because it is ambiguous.  

While mild mental retardation is a clearly-defined IQ value with a maximum of 69 points, the concept of "impairment" is ambiguous. Klára Laurenčíková Šimáčková, chair of the Czech Professional Association for Inclusive Education (Česká odborná společnost pro inkluzivní vzdělávání – ČOSIV) believes that makes the term dangerous.

Tomáš Habart of the People in Need organization’s "Varianty" education project has also warned of the possible consequences of the language in a press release. In his view, the bill would "dangerously open the door to… schools designed for pupils with mental disability".

Habart said the language runs completely counter to the purpose of the amendment as it is being presented by the Education Ministry. Tomáš Feřtek, an expert consultant with the EDUin assocation, claims the experts’ critique is not about details or word games, but is about a fundamental disagreement.

"The supporters of preserving the ‘practical schools’ in their existing form are seeking a formulation in the law that will make it possible for them, in collaboration with certain educational psychology counseling centers, to continue to recommend that even children without mental handicaps be sent to those schools," he said. EDUin is a public benefit corporation that has long focused on the issue of education and is now calling for the formulation in the Government’s bill to be made more exact, referring to other experts’ opinions on the issue.

Feřtek believes a child’s mental disability should always be based on "assessing a child’s or pupil’s adaptive and intellectual capabilities in the context of the child’s or pupil’s development, social environment and cultural environment." The Education Ministry rejects the interpretation according to which this paragraph of the law could be abused to wrongfully send children to the "practical schools".  

Specific support measures for children with special needs are to be described in a decree accompanying the law which will divide them into five categories depending on how demanding they are. In that context, field workers with the People in Need organization have warned of deficiencies in the work of the educational psychology counseling centers whose assessments are fundamental to children’s educational careers.  

Jan Černý, director of People in Need’s social integration program, told the Radiožurnál radio station that in northern Bohemia every 20th child, or 5 % of the school-age population, has been diagnosed with mild mental retardation. In the general population, however, the occurrence of this disability does not exceed 2 %, which corresponds, for example, to the rates of mild mental retardation reported from the Hradec Králové or South Bohemian Regions.  

Černý believes one reason for this overdiagnosis could be that there is too much capacity in the "practical schools". "We believe there are too many places there and that the counseling centers will always fill them up," he said.

Romani children, therefore, unnecessarily end up in the "practical schools" so the system can continue to function, according to Černý. For school directors it is an economic necessity to have a full school.  

The state does not currently regulate the number of places in such institutions. A school’s establisher (the municipal or regional government) is in charge of such matters.