Problems Concerning the Tasks and Content of the General Education Secondary School

Czecholovakia is now realizing a new system of education and instruction. Under this system the majority of the youth are to acquire, within the next few years, complete secondary education at schools of the second grade (stage). One type of these schools is the Three-Year General Education Secondary School, following the Basic Nine-Year School. This is to give the youth general and polytechnical secondary education and the rudiments of vocational instruction. It prepares for studies at universities, vocational schools or for the acquisition of a skilled worker’s qualification. The articlç/deals with the consequences of these tasks for the school curriculum. It analyses thç requirements of universities, vocational studies and the requirements for the acquisition of a skilled worker’s qualification. It deals with the proportion between general and polytechnical education on the hand and vocational instruction on the other hand. It discusses the possibility of differentiating the curriculum. It comes to the conclusion that from the viewpoint of university-level studies it is most suitable for the Czechoslovak secondary school to be differentiated into branches. There should qç a general branch with eligible subjects, another branch schould stress instruction in mathematics and physics, and the third one schould stress subjects of social sciences (literature and histO]ty) and natural sciences (chemistry, biology). A public discussion on these questions is now going on in Czechoslovakia.