Welcome to EDU.CZ - the Education and Information Portal, which represents a non-commercial internet medium, providing information from the area of the school system and education. The EDU.CZ portal is run by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the CZ.
The objective of the portal is
providing information and educational services to teachers, pupils, students, the management of education institutions and the entire learning society;
providing a communication space for the exchange of experience and materials among schools and other educational establishments and within the pedagogical and academic workers (this target is fulfilled in the Czech version of the portal, the English one places the emphasis on providing information);
supporting development of the educational system, being a tool for the presentation and enforcement of educational policy;
being a tool for supporting lifelong learning and developing the concept of the learning society;
supporting co-operation on the international level (e.g. European Schoolnet).
In the English version of the portal you will find
information about the educational system in the Czech Republic as well as study and educational opportunities not only in the Czech Republic but throughout the whole of Europe;
links summing up the legislation regulating education in the CZ (the current wording of the School Act, Higher Education Act, Act on Pedagogical Workers and the White Book - etc.);
various documents from the area of education and training;
publications from the area of the school system;
selected documents relating to international activities;
links to foreign schools in the Czech Republic;
links to language courses in Czech, Czech language courses;
a list of frequently asked questions of foreign users (FAQ);
useful links relating to education and study in the CZ and Europe;
information about the history and functioning of the EDU.CZ portal;
contact information of the EDU.CZ portal.
Strategic Goals and Definition of EDU.CZ, the Education and Information Portal
Strategic Goals
The strategic goals of the Education and Information Portal (EIP) are based on the plans set out in the State Information Policy in Education and on the recommendations of eEurope action plans.
The EIP is a basic web environment offering:
information and education services to teachers, pupils, students, the management of educational institutions and the whole of the learning society;
space for communication and the chance to exchange experience and materials between schools and other educational institutions, and within the teaching and academic professions;
a tool to support the development of the education system, and a vehicle for the presentation and promotion of the education policy;
a support tool to monitor and generate feedback on the way the education system works;
a vehicle to promote lifelong learning and develop the concept of a learning society;
the chance to become involved in the pan-European network of information sources and education support (e.g. European Schoolnet).
Definition of the EIP and the Role of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports
EDU.CZ has been set up as an open non-profit website organized by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. The Ministry uses EDU.CZ to fuel the development of the education system and lifelong learning, to present and promote the state education policy, and to advance the concept of a learning society. The portal is designed to serve the needs of managerial staff in the education sector, teachers and the general public.
The EIP has been set up at EDU.CZ as an open system in terms of its approach to the providers and users of portal services and as regards the concept and progressive development of its content and technology. Commercial services, which may well be offered in line with the portal’s policy of openness, are secondary and are subject to transparent rules. The EIP harbours no ambitions to replace existing commercial portals and websites specializing in education. The EIP is keen to communicate with these portals and sites if they express an interest or if the needs of the ministry dictate. EDU.CZ is structured into basic user groups and thematic categories.
Progressive Formation of the EIP
The EDU.CZ portal will be developed gradually over several phases. In the opening phase, the ministry’s main goals include:
to supply and mediate guaranteed information on education in a single place, including the publication of legislation related to education, for state administration, local government, schools and educational establishments, other training institutions, the management of educational institutions, the media, and the general public;
to present and promote the strategic educational plans of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (e.g. support for the implementation of curriculum reform, the reform of school-leaving examinations, backing for the long-term plan to develop the education system and universities, etc.);
to promote education within the learning society by exploiting a multitude of opportunities offered by the Internet (including the further training of teaching and academic staff and the managers of educational institutions).
In the initial stages, these objectives will be reflected in the services provided by the EIP as follows:
I. Information services:
The first step in the pilot project will be to create a comprehensive electronic system of guaranteed data on education enabling education providers and participants, public servants and the public to benefit from effective, personalized use of this information. The backbone of this information system will be data and services provided as standard to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports by service organizations, thus ensuring that it is regularly updated. The portal will give ministry staff the opportunity to oversee the online methodological management of schools and educational establishments and will offer them a new way of monitoring and supporting the development of the education system.
II. Communication services:
In the field of communication, EDU.CZ aims to set up an effective platform for communication between state administration and local government, educational institutions and professional teachers. The portal should provide space for the electronic exchange of views, observations, experience, and materials between individual users: teachers, head teachers, representatives of university management, academic staff, students, pupils, etc. At the start of the pilot project, EDU.CZ will offer its users a discussion model focusing on topical issues of Czech education, part of which will include a public debate on the further development of the portal.
III. Educational services:
The system of educational services should provide educational support for users within the education system (educational institutions, pupils and students, academic and teaching staff, including in the system of further education) and outside the system (lifelong learning). The resources used to set up this educational support will exploit many of the openings offered by portal services, from updated summaries of available education (further teacher training, courses for the managers of educational institutions, etc.), where users can run searches according to their requirements, to distance learning programmes (including e-learning elements). During the pilot project stage, the educational part of EDU.CZ will guide users on how to work their way round the portal. Eventually, it will be possible to follow up with, for example, a coherent presentation of several themes (the first days at primary school, completion of compulsory full-time schooling, preparation for the new maturita examination, etc.).
Project History
The original ideas and moves to create a non-commercial web portal for the needs of the Czech education community, providing children, young people and adults with a system of general, readily accessible, relevant and dependable information about the range of educational activities on offer, date back to the turn of the century. One of the key motivating factors was the Concept of the State Information Policy in Education, a document approved by the Government of the Czech Republic on 10 April 2000. In September 2003, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports commissioned the Institute for Information on Education (IIE) to launch and coordinate work on a feasibility study and on the preparation of a pilot project. In April 2004, the management of the education ministry adopted the feasibility study drawn up by IIE staff as the springboard for further measures to establish a departmental web portal.
In a decision made in summer 2004 by the education minister, Petra Buzková, the Institute for Information on Education was appointed to implement a project for an education portal to be run under the edu.cz domain. In April 2005, work was completed on the preparation of a systemic project for the portal by SEFIRA, which drew on the conclusions from this project to gear up for the launch of trial operations in July 2005. In September 2005 Hewlett-Packard, having emerged as the winner in a tender advertised in accordance with the Public Procurement Act, started work aimed at producing a technical and implementation project and launching the pilot operation of the education portal. The prototype of the web pages, which you are viewing now, was made accessible to Internet users in January 2006.
The purpose and benefits of the education portal for teachers, pupils and their parents, head teachers, experts, officials and other user groups are summed up in Strategic Goals and Definition of the EDU.CZ Portal, a document published in October 2004.
Structure of User and Thematic Categories
Eight main target groups of users (i.e. eight user categories) have been defined for the pilot phase of the EDU.CZ portal:
Pupils of primary and secondary schools
Students in further and higher education
Teachers and school staff
Parents
Head teachers
Researchers and academics
Public administration
Media
The cornerstone of the portal’s information structure is a thematic catalogue covering the following basic topics:
Education
Leisure
Consultancy services in education
Legislation
Library
Statistics, research and development
International activities
Information technology in education
The catalogue should enable users to navigate their way round the available information with ease. With this requirement in mind, the data in both types of classification may overlap, but are offered to users in optional sets. In addition to the quality search engine, the alternative classification will aid high-speed access to the information required.
The categorization of the data is not finished and definitive, and will be adapted to users’ requirements.
Organizations Contributing to the EDU.CZ Project
The following entities contribute data (i.e. information and educational content) to the ministry’s portal:
The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic (Ministerstvo školství, mládeže a tělovýchovy ČR)
Centre for the Monitoring of Results in Education (Centrum pro zjišťování výsledků vzdělávání)
Czech Schools Inspectorate (Česká školní inspekce)
The House for International Services of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (Dům zahraničních služeb MŠMT)
The Educational and Psychological Counselling Institute of the Czech Republic (Institut pedagogicko-psychologického poradenství ČR)
The National Institute of Children and Youth of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (Národní institut dětí a mládeže)
The National Institute for Further Education (Národní institut dalšího vzdělávání)
The National Institute of Technical and Vocational Education (Národní ústav odborného vzdělávání)
The Institute for Information on Education (Ústav pro informace ve vzdělávání)
The Research Institute of Education in Prague (Výzkumný ústav pedagogický)
The Pedagogical Museum of J. A. Comenius in Prague (Pedagogické muzeum J. A. Komenského)
