Zdeněk Nejedlý and the Implementation of the Education Act in the Years 1948-49 and 1949-50

On 19th March 1948 Zdeněk Nejedlý, who after February was again given the post of Minister of Education and Culture, put forward a Bill providing for the basic organization of a unified education system. The Bill was discussed by the government on 25th March, and on 21th April it was passed by the plenary session of the Constitutional National Assembly. The Act introduced a unified educationsystem and created conditions for a uniform educational effect exercised by nursery schools, primary (1st stage) schools, secondary all-in schools up to die age of 15 (2nd stage) and 3rd stage schools consisting of compulsory basic trade schools for the training of apprentices, selective vocational and senior vocational schools and four-year gymnasiums (i. e. senior grammar schools or high schools of an academic type). After the promulgation of the Act the Education Ministry concentrated on work connected with its implementation. In an unusually short space of time it issued the necessary instructions and saw to it that from 1st September primary and secondary school curricula were in keeping with the new syllabuses prepared by the Institute of Pedagogical Research; diis Institute was charged with preparation of new textbooks, and commisions of experts were set up for this purpose headed by outstanding scholars; in anticipation of the prospective changes some measures were also taken in the 3rd stage schools, which were being gradually changed, in accordance with the new Act, into new types of schools as from the school year 1950—51. The Minister influenced the introduction of the new education system by a number of his speeches, by his participation in important discussions, by concrete help in the preparation of new syllabuses and textbooks as well as by valuable suggestions for raising the standard of educational work, which was a matter the education authorities were continuously concerned with. The implementation of the Act and the development of the education system had a marked effect on discussions at the 9th Congress of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in April 1949, which paid great attention to questions of young people’s education and to the efforts to bring about revolutionary changes in people’s consciousness. The Congress was also addressed by Zdeněk Nejedlý, who delivered a long speech to acquaint the Congress participants with the current and long-term tasks of his department and to demonstrate that education of a new, socialist man must become an integral part of socialist construction.