Reform of the School System and Technical Training

The growth of the productivity of social work is of decisive importance for the victory of a new social order. Furthermore, it helps to solve in Czechoslovakia the problem resulting from very limited sources of manpower. Therefore the third Five Year Plan provides for a high increase in productivity. This can be achieved only by large-scale application of modern technology.
Technical progress will require higher and higher education of technical workers both in the category of skilled workers ard in the category of higher technical staff.
The new school system partly meets these requirement by extending compulsory general and polytechnical education from eight to nine years. And the small proportion of the youth who still enter employment immediately after finishing their compulsory school attendance will disappear the neav in future.
Skilled technical workers will continue to be trained in two-year and mostly three-year courses t( learn their trades. Classroom instruction of apprentices will be extended at the expense of their practical professional training. The Russian language will be introduced as a new compulsory subject. The standard of technical training will not be affected by the reduced number of hours, if the shortcomings in its organization and methods are removed.
According to the resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia of April, 1959, a new type of school appeared in our educational system — S econdary Schools for Wor ki ng People. This type of school follows apprenticeship and enables all skilled workers to attain full secondary education during emi)loyment. These schools are going to be the principal means of acquiring full secondary education!