The European Schools (ES) are official transnational educational establishments with a 6o-year tradition. This education is recognized by all the EU Member States as well as other countries. The main objectives is to promote the mother tongue and cultural identity of pupils in connection with multicultural upbringing and education in foreign languages.
 
Learning and teaching is conducted in accordance with the international curriculum, created to facilitate smooth transition of their pupils to national schools. There are currently 14 European Schools in seven countries with a total of approximately 24,000 pupils from all EU countries including the Czech Republic on roll. Based on the recommendation of the European Parliament, the European Schools have opened up their curricula and European Baccalaureate since 2005 for national schools. Accredited European Schools are schools which offer a European education that meets the pedagogical requirements laid down for the European Schools but within the framework of the national school networks of the Member States and hence outside the legal, administrative and financial framework to which the European Schools are compulsorily subject.
 
The content and quality of provision is guaranteed by school inspectors appointed by the Member States. Each Member State nominates one member to the Council of Inspectors for pre-primary and primary level and one member to the Council of Inspectors for the secondary level.
 
The Czech School Inspectorate, in cooperation with MEYS, has been participating in quality assurance in ES education since accession of the Czech Republic to the European Schools Status Treaty in 2004. The priority task of the two inspectors appointed is to supervise the pupils' education in all the education cycles, to participate in selection and appraisal of teachers and school managers, to provide them with methodological guidance, to ensure continuity of the national education system and to provide counselling services to pupils and their parents.
 
European Schools' inspectors develop and coordinate curriculum, create evaluation tools, initiate system development and harmonize and coordinate the organization of education in different language sections. Currently, the CSI substantially participates at development of the whole European Schools system, especially in pre-primary education, education of pupils with special educational needs and in development of strategies and tools for formative and summative assessment of pupils. These activities enable enforcing the Czech Republic interests within the European Schools system and to apply the CSI methodological approaches internationally.
 
The CSI European Schools inspectors, cooperate with representatives of educational and inspection systems of all EU Member States. This facilitates the information and experience exchange and establishment of contacts useful for CSI methods development as well as further international cooperation.     
 
More information on the European Schools to be found at www.eursc.eu.