The issue of intercultural education appears in all the strategic documents of the MEYS: e.g. the White Book – the National Programme for the Development of Education in the Czech Republic (2001); the Long-Term Plan for Education and the Development of the Education System in the Czech Republic (2007); the Concept of State Policy for Children and Young People for the Period 2007–2013 and the Strategy for the Education Policy of the CR up to 2030 (Ministry of Education, 2020). Each year the MEYS announces its Programme in Support of Education in the Languages of Ethnic Minorities and Intercultural Education. Supported projects focus on educational activities for children and young people, on ethnic minorities, on the creation and application of educational programmes, and on teaching materials for children and young people and for teaching staff that are designed to combat racial and ethnic intolerance and anti-Semitism. Projects also focus on integrative and multicultural projects and quantitative and qualitative studies and analyses in the field of the multicultural education of children and young people. It also announces the development programme In Support of Schools, which applies inclusive education and the education of socio-culturally disadvantaged children and students. The MEYS has also joined the Council of Europe’s Platform of Information Materials for Multilingual and Intercultural Education.
Many elementary arts schools and arts and extracurricular activity centres include materials from other cultures or countries in their learning programme (e.g. playing music by foreign artists, songs from around the world, etc.). This, however, depends on the individual approach of each teacher.
The Inclusive School Portal provides handbooks, recommendations, and examples of best practice in the field of intercultural education that are aimed at both the professional community and the general public.
Among NGOs, intercultural education is a focal area of the People in Need Foundation, which, as part of its educational programmes, offers, for example, its ‘Variants’ programme. The aim of this educational programme, which has been operating for more than a decade, is to serve as an information service and methodological support in the field of intercultural and global development education. Courses and seminars prepared by the staff of the Variants programme are attended each year by more than 1500 people, most of them elementary and secondary school teachers, but also by students in various post-secondary study programmes, NGO staff, and employees in public administration. In addition to educational activities, the programme works to develop new teaching materials in this field. The Variants programme is also involved in supporting inclusive education and the introduction of systemic measures aimed at incorporating themes of intercultural and global development education into the curriculum of Czech schools.
Under Lex Ukraine II (see also 2.5.1.), newly arrived children from Ukraine have the right to education under similar conditions as Czech children. These children should also be treated in the same way as everyone else in terms of funding the activities of schools from the state budget. Segregation of Ukrainian children is not desirable; on the contrary, efforts should be made to gradually integrate them into the Czech education system. In the area of funding, an effective method of communication between schools, founders and other authorities should be set up so that it is possible to react in a timely and proactive manner to any changes. To this end, MEYS has issued a methodological guideline on how exactly to proceed.
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