1 │ INTRODUCTION Distance learning in basic and upper secondary schools in the Czech Republic 8 1 INTRODUCTION In the month of March 2021, it has been a year since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in the Czech Republic. Apart from other areas, the pandemic has also had a very significant impact on education. At the beginning of April 2020, following an absolutely extraordinary and unexpected situation caused by the ban on pupils being present in person in schools due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Czech School Inspectorate conducted an extraordinary thematic survey in the form of controlled telephone interviews with the principals of almost 5,000 basic schools (hereinafter also referred to as “BS”) and upper secondary schools (hereinafter also referred to as “USS”) the aim of which was to discuss the implementation of newly set distance learning from various perspectives, to help schools methodically, and to prepare documents for targeting methodological support provided by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. The findings of this survey are summarised in the thematic report entitled Distance Learning in Basic and Upper Secondary Schools in the Czech Republic issued in May 2020, which is available on the Czech School Inspectorate’s website (direct link here). 1Following the survey, after the resumption of in-class learning at the beginning of the 2020/2021 school year, the Czech School Inspectorate continued to monitor the impact of the extraordinary measures on both the conditions and course of education directly in schools. The survey also included pupils’ and teachers’ experience and opinions. However, in mid-October 2020, following the outbreak of another wave of the pandemic and the re-imposition of the ban on pupils being present in schools, thematic activities were suspended and the Czech School Inspectorate prepared and issued (in November 2020) a thematic report reflecting the available results of its research, with many methodological recommendations and ideas for increasing the quality of distance learning. The thematic report entitled Basic School Pupils’ and Teachers’ Experience with Distance Learning in the Second Half of the 2019/2020 School Year is also available on the Czech School Inspectorate’s website (direct link here). In the autumn period of the 2020/2021 school year, the Czech School Inspectorate offered all basic and upper secondary schools the option of methodological consultations on issues related to distance learning in order to help schools address the difficulties they encounter in distance learning. Interest in these methodological consultations was shown by hundreds of schools with which the Czech School Inspectorate discussed issues related to the preparation, organisation, focus and forms of distance learning, content priorities of distance learning, distance learning of pupils with special educational needs (hereinafter also referred to as “SEN”), or evaluation and the provision of feedback or communication with pupils and their legal representatives (hereinafter also referred to as “parents”); the discussion was conducted by telephone, through video calls or in the form of personal visits, as agreed with and required by the school principal. It is also from these activities that the Czech School Inspectorate has obtained a number of findings and information that can be taken into account in evaluating distance learning. From January 2021, the Czech School Inspectorate continued to carry out thematic inspection activities in basic and upper secondary schools commenced in September 2020, aimed at monitoring the effects of extraordinary measures 2on both the conditions and course of education in both in-class and distance learning. The aim of these thematic inspection activities is to find out how education in schools is provided in a situation where some pupils were or are present in person (1st and 2nd years of basic education were educated in the in-class mode for most of the monitored period) and most pupils remotely, to help schools evaluate the situation, to find out the approaches applied by schools after many months of experience with distance learning and after a number of methodological recommendations issued by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, the Czech School Inspectorate, and other institutions and organisations, to assess the course of both in-class and distance lessons with regard to their focus, content and efficiency, to provide methodologically focused feedback to schools, and, simultaneously, to prepare aggregated documents for the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports in order to target further methodological support. In addition to virtual observations in online lessons, these thematic inspection activities also include thematically focused interviews with school managements and teachers. The thematic inspection activities with this focus will be carried out until the end of the 2020/2021 school year. The thematic report that has been presented reflects the findings of the Czech School Inspectorate from various forms of inspection activities and other activities of the authority focused on distance learning in basic and upper secondary schools and implemented from September 2020 to the end of February 2021, with an emphasis on the findings made in January and February 2021 using a representative sample of 385 basic and upper secondary schools based on 3,539 observed lessons of synchronous (online) learning and 3,154 interviews with teachers. As an illustration, the text also provides specific examples, procedures and experience of schools. This information is given in boxes in italics . 1 The abridged version of the report for international audience is available on the OECD website (direct link here). 2 The thematic inspection activities were carried out in fully organised basic schools, in basic schools with only the 1st stage, in secondary general schools, and in both Maturita and non-Maturita fields of secondary technical/vocational schools (hereinafter also referred to as “STS”).