Study shows Czech schoolchildren support minorities but are not civically active

Czech children support minority equality and are interested in the environment, but compared to their foreign peers they are not very involved in civic activities. These are the findings of the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS 2009), which surveyed 8th-grade pupils from 38 countries worldwide last year. In terms of their grasp of civics, young Czechs ranked 18th, but compared to 1999 their results had deteriorated the most of any country.

“Czech pupils are above-average in their grasp of civics,” said research coordinator Petr Soukup. The average number of points scored was 500 and the Czech score was 510.

“The pupils almost unanimously support equal rights, an equal position in politics, and equal pay for both sexes. At the same time, more than half of the young people agree that women’s main priority should be raising children,” commented representatives of the Institute for Information in Education, which performed the survey in 144 Czech schools. Soukup says it is not clear whether the children are declaring these positions because they genuinely believe them or because they are “politically correct”.

Young Czechs expressed high levels of tolerance for ethnic minorities, immigrants, and religious issues. Just like the rest of the Czech population, only a minority of the 14-year-olds are religious.

Czech children scored below average on participation in public life. When they are engaged, it is only at school, such as during elections to school parliaments. The research also reveals they are not planning to get involved in public life or politics in the future. Roughly 60 % of the children expressed a willingness to vote in national elections to the Czech Parliament, while only 38 % of the pupils would vote in elections to the European Parliament.

“Czech pupils have rather low levels of faith in various institutions, particularly in political parties (28 % of pupils) and Parliament (33 %), and these values are below the international average,” the report says. On the other hand, Czech children do have faith in the army, the police, schools, the courts, and the media. Most pupils also evaluated their teachers as capable of listening to them and helping them.

The research focused on the civic knowledge and attitudes of pupils in the 8th grade of elementary school and the junior year at academic high school. Those attending academic high school had significantly better results, and Czech children as a whole performed better than those in Belgium, Norway or Slovenia. However, compared to the 1999 survey, a statistical decline of 10 points was recorded for the Czech children and similar declines for Bulgarian, Polish and Slovak children. The research was financed by the European Social Fund and the Czech state budget and surveyed more than 4 600 pupils and 1 600 teachers.