CzechRep officially does not know illiteracy, but it exists-press

The Czech Republic officially does not know illiteracy, but completely or practically illiterate people count by hundreds in the least in the ten million country, the latest issue of weekly Tyden writes.

Practical or functional illiteracy is a term used to describe people who did go to school, but who have forgotten to read and write.

"They can read how much a cucumber costs in a shop, but they do not comprehend a bus or train time schedule or a coherent text," Martina Brzobohata, from Jekhetani Luma NGO that helps socially weak families in their contact with authorities, is quoted as saying.

The completely illiterate inhabitants of the Czech Republic are mainly Slovak Romanies, but this does not apply to all of them, Tyden writes.

It mentions a Marie Krokova, 85, who now lives in Beroun, central Bohemia. She grew up in Marhan, east Slovakia. When she was 13, her mother died and she had to look after her two brothers.

"The school was far away, she was not able to attend it," Krokova’s daughter Zdenka told Tyden.

She said her mother worked as a farm-hand, milked cows, worked in the field. The pattern repeated when she got married, started to live in Bohemia and had six children. She did no miss the ability to read and write at work, and she always was capable of counting money.

"She, however, regretted that she could not read a book. So we read for her and she looked at the pictures," Zdenka told Tyden.

According to U.N. statistics, almost 16 percent of people living in the Czech Republic are functionally illiterate. The worst situation in Europe is in Portugal (48 percent), the best in Sweden (7.5 percent), the weekly writes.

It says the illiterate in the Czech Republic are in their majority middle-aged immigrants from east Slovakia and their children.
The parents tell the son :" We did not need it (reading and writing), why should you learn it?" Tyden writes.

Alena Zahradkova, from the social department of the local authority in Slany, central Bohemia, told the weekly "I have here a woman her family considers to be an intelligent because she can syllabicate."

Some 50 illiterare families live in Slany. It is almost impossible to guess the number of members of one such family, the weekly writes.

It says that children from such an environment are often automatically sent to special schools irrespective of their abilities.
When Zahradkova asked a family why it wants to send their son to a special school, why they do not try it at a regular elementary school first, the family told her that they do not want to go to the elementary school because it is up on a hill.
The situation in Slovakia is even more complex. Romany children there often speak only Romany, Tyden writes.

It says they do not attend nursery schools since parents do not consider this important, or because the majority inhabitants reject them.

"They only come across Slovak language in the first grade of the elementary school for the first time," Ondrej Poduska, from the Slovak Milan Simecka Foundation, told Tyden.

"They are considered as children with a lower IQ while they are intelligent," he added.

Illiterate people do not much use the offered opportunities to resume the lost or gain new abilities, Tyden writes.

It says that in Slovakia there is a special programme focused particularly on people aged 20 to 30 years who can complete both elementary and secondary education.

The Czech Education Ministry makes it possible for elementary schools to open special courses at which people can complete elementary education, but they practically do not function because of a low interest, Tyden writes.

"They (the illiterate) do not almost perceive it (their illiteracy) as a problem, they consider it normal," Zahradkova told Tyden.

Brzobohata added that there is always someone in the family who can help them. "They are not motivated then," she added.