(CZ) Jazykový faktor a přístup k vzdělání
(EN) The Language Factor and Access to Education

In this article the author analyses the problem of how access to education is influenced by the language factor; in doing so, he concentrates on the ideological foundations of this problem, and develops a previous paper of his (J. Průcha, 1975), in which he gave a critical assessment of Bernstein’s theory on the relation of language, education and social class. The purpose of the present contribution is to appraise the ideological foundations of the theories put forward by those Western researchers who deal with the problem of access to education on the basis of bourgeois ideology only. In contrast to their approach the author is trying to outline the principles of a Marxist conception of the influence of the language factor on access to education. The principal conclusion is as follows: The language factor (e. g. mastering or the failure to master the so-called elaborated code of mother language by children from certain social classes) is undoubtedly a very important factor in the field of education. However, the influence of the language factor on access to education must not be overestimated, and especially it must not be looked upon as the primary cause of inequality of education in a class society. Factors which are decisive for access to education are the social, economic, political and cultural conditions of the life of society. (This is demonstrated by some examples concerning the problem of access to education in Czechoslovakia in the periods of capitalism and of socialism; the data concerning education in present-day capitalist countries are taken mostly from the work by A. Sauva, 1973). Some of the Western researchers who are investigating the problem of the in fluence of the language factor on access to education greatly overrate its significance and disregard the basic social and economic determinants of education. On the other hand, those among the Western researchers who base their theories on the Marxist conception (Levitas, 1974) expose the real causes of inequality in access to education in contemporary capitalist society. In Marxist pedagogy the problem of the language factor as a determinant of education has not been much investigated yet. As a result, the Marxist pedagogical science will have the following task: to investigate, under the conditions of a socialist school, a wide range of problems involving the functions of language and communication in education.