(CZ) Společensky účinné vzdělání
(EN) Socially Effective Education

In this article the author is trying to explain the substance of education as a socially effective force. She regards education as a cultivating force while pointing out the Czech pedagogical tradition of Comenius. It is a tradition which may be called the conception of socially effective education. Its substance lies in the fact that education should cultivate all people without distinction in order to enable them to perceive the substance of reality, to enable them to transform reality and to shape a new reality organized in such a way as to serve man’s purposes. This feature is topical in the world of today, where the prevailing reality is that created by man, which, however, is not subordinated to man s purposes. As a result of technical progress the interdependence of people all over the world is increasing while contradictions in all spheres of reality are being stepped up. That is why education conceived from the viewpoint of life perspectives ought to provide training for communication in the broad sense of the word (linguistic, cultural, professional etc.), ought to give the methods of thinking and behaviour, the method of discovering the substance and the contradictions of reality, and the method of overcoming the contradictions. The new conception of education ought to integrate the knowledge of natural and social sciences. These principles ought to link all kinds of education so as to make education a socially effective force.