2 │ SUMMARY OF MAIN FINDINGS Distance learning in basic and upper secondary schools in the Czech Republic 10 2 SUMMARY OF MAIN FINDINGS In March 2021, it has been a year since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in the Czech Republic, which also had a significant impact on education. The Czech School Inspectorate has been monitoring and evaluating distance learning of pupils from various points of view since the spring of 2020, which allows it to assess shifts in the quality and effectiveness of key aspects of learning remotely. With the beginning of the 2020/2021 school year, among other things due to the existence of a number of methodological documents and suggestions for addressing this issue and also due to the enactment of the obligation to participate in distance learning, it was assumed that in the following period of distance learning there would be a significant reduction in the number of pupils with whom schools had failed to come into contact in the spring of 2020 so these pupils had remained completely out of education in the second half of the 2019/2020 school year. During the Czech School Inspectorate’s thematic survey in April 2020, school principals estimated that there could have been about 10,000 such pupils at that time. Although the schools visited by the Czech School Inspectorate as part of the 3thematic inspection activities in January and February 2021 actually declared a more significant reduction in the number of such pupils, other findings and sources of the Czech School Inspectorate show that this situation is still very unsatisfactory from a countrywide perspective and it is unlikely that there has been a significant and widespread reduction in the number of pupils completely out of education in the 2020/2021 school year. More detailed information will be available after the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports publishes the results of its questionnaire survey which also focused on this issue. Conversely, the number of pupils who did not or do not attend online distance learning due to technical difficulties but who cooperate with the school and are provided by the school with educational materials and assignments in a different way has actually dropped from the estimated 250,000 in the spring of 2020 to about a fifth, thanks to a number of interventions implemented both at the end of the 2019/2020 school year and in the 2020/2021 school year. However, apart from pupils who cannot participate in online distance learning for technical reasons, there is still a group of pupils who participate in online distance learning irregularly or do not work sufficiently, mainly due to family problems, usually associated with low motivation to learn or with low family support. Most of them are older pupils whose education is demanding even in in-class learning. Unfortunately, this situation further widens the gap in education between pupils from socio-economically disadvantaged and socio-economically advantaged family backgrounds. However, the findings of the Czech School Inspectorate clearly show that where schools look for ways to educate pupils with respect to their very different conditions, they eventually succeed in many cases despite the unfavourable socio-economic backgrounds of such pupils, albeit not fully. One of the key persons in the school for involving pupils in online distance learning is the class teacher, especially at the 2nd stage of basic schools and in upper secondary schools. For this reason, a positive finding is the increase in the involvement of class teachers in distance learning, especially at the 2nd stage of basic schools. The effectiveness of education in such a demanding period as long-term distance learning is strongly linked to the degree of pedagogical leadership of teachers and the entire pedagogical process by the school principal. Compared to the period of spring 2020, when, according to the findings of the Czech School Inspectorate, about a third of school principals were definitely not successful in fulfilling their coordination and management role in providing distance learning, the situation has improved significantly in the 2020/2021 school year, and the Czech School Inspectorate has so far identified in its findings fewer than a tenth of school principals who fail to adequately manage the effective organisation and implementation of distance learning so as to be beneficial to pupils. Continuous monitoring of distance learning in the past year confirms that the demands of distance learning are high for all pupils, even more so for pupils with special educational needs. Although, according to the findings of the Czech School Inspectorate, not all pupils with SEN are involved in online synchronous learning, a positive finding is the high level of using individual consultations or teaching assistants to support these pupils in their distance learning. In the 2020/2021 school year, most schools spent the introductory weeks of in-class learning in September and early October preparing both pupils and teachers for the transition to online distance learning in case it occurred again in that school year. However, a small number of schools still expected the situation to improve so they did not switch to online distance learning until after a longer period, in some cases in November 2020, in some not even until January 2021; in rare cases, schools switched to online distance learning in February 2021, at the beginning of the second half of the year. Thanks to financial intervention by the state, schools’ technical and digital equipment has significantly improved. Practically, for most of the current part of the 2020/2021 school year, education has been implemented remotely, which has significantly contributed to the development of teachers’ digital competences. Given that almost all schools have 3 Some surveys carried out by non-profit organisations or higher education institutions have found an even higher number.