Distance learning in basic and upper secondary schools in the Czech Republic 3/22 1 Introduction Following the announcement of a prohibition of the physical presence of pupils in basic and upper secondary schools from 11 March 2020, along with measures taken by the Czech government during the covid-19 pandemic, a completely exceptional situation arose for which schools, pupils and their parents had not received any systematic preparation in the past. 1Schools were forced to find a way to effectively fulfil their role and ensure the education of pupils even in completely non-standard conditions basically overnight. Due to the mass spread of digital technologies, these technologies were used to varying degrees in distance learning. 2The starting position of schools differed - from schools that had minimal experience with the use of digital technologies in teaching and the focus of which rather reduced the influence of technologies, to schools that were well equipped with digital technologies, their teachers were used to working with technologies in teaching and their teaching activities had been set up for a long time in such a form that pupils could participate distantly (e.g. at the time of their illness, etc.). During the first two weeks of the school closure, many schools were trying to find out how to arrange education, including which communication platforms to use, etc. At the same time, they were trying to understand the conditions in the families of individual pupils so that they could respond to them. In three weeks after the school closure the situation became much more stabilised in most of the schools. From 1 April 2020 to 14 April 2020, the Czech School Inspectorate carried out a specific thematic survey through a series of structured telephone interviews with principals of almost all basic and upper secondary schools, aimed at describing the situation in individual schools during distance education, identifying school needs and providing methodological support to schools. Table No. 1 Schools involved in structured telephone interviews Region Basic schools (primary level) lower secondary Basic schools (primary and levels) Upper secondary schools Total Jihočeský 74 157 78 309 Jihomoravský 198 249 92 539 Karlovarský 24 81 30 135 Královéhradecký 106 124 54 284 Liberecký 71 108 46 225 Moravskoslezský 128 272 122 522 Olomoucký 115 154 73 342 Pardubický 101 131 63 295 Plzeňský 72 122 46 240 Praha 38 204 158 400 Středočeský 200 312 130 642 Ústecký 59 193 77 329 Vysočina 116 133 52 301 Zlínský 103 132 63 298 Total 1,405 2,372 1,084 4,861 1 For simplification, the term parent is freely used in the text instead of the term legal representative. 2 In the text, the terms distance learning, online learning or distance education are used completely freely, without reference to terminological accuracy or legislative anchoring of the given forms of education.