5 │ USING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES IN DISTANCE LEARNING Distance learning in basic and upper secondary schools in the Czech Republic 28 5 USING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES IN DISTANCE LEARNING Almost all of the basic and upper secondary schools that were visited implemented distance learning using digital technologies with a combination of online learning and other educational activities implemented offline. In this area, compared both to the spring period of the 2019/2020 school year and to the beginning of the 2020/2021 school year, distance learning has significantly improved and shifted, which is undoubtedly due to the very well-prepared Methodological Recommendation of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports for Distance Learning issued in September 2020. 10However, in a few rare cases the Czech School Inspectorate has also identified opposite cases, where some schools did not start implementing online lessons until January 2021 or even until the second half of the 2020/2021 school year. Such isolated cases are usually caused by the poor quality of the school management and very poor work of the school principal, against which pressure is also exerted by pupils’ parents. The role of the statutory authority of these schools and the degree of its interest in the quality of education they provide also raise questions. This may be illustrated by the following example. On 12 January 2021, a parent petition was handed to the school with a request to start online learning immediately, especially for the main subjects: Mathematics, Czech Language, Physics and Foreign Languages. During the inspection, a very low proportion of synchronous online learning was found, only in Czech Language, Foreign Language and Chemistry; in Mathematics, online synchronous learning was not provided at all. Only English teachers have been teaching online since the autumn period, two teachers since the spring of the 2019/2020 school year. The German Language teacher started teaching in January, when she was equipped with a school laptop. A different situation occurred in some basic schools educating a higher proportion of pupils from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. These schools then tried to implement distance learning in other forms. Although it is difficult to implement online synchronous learning (due to the pupils’ socio-economic backgrounds), all pupils, with one exception, are involved in learning in the form of written assignments, which they regularly collect at school and complete at home. The school also has a set schedule of daily individual consultations, and pupils are interested in them. The set system is functioning. Teachers usually use school digital equipment to implement the online part of distance learning. Almost all schools already have digital equipment to a sufficient extent, and although its technical parameters may vary, it is sufficient for implementing online distance learning at a basic level. The optimal condition is the equipment that allows teachers, if necessary, to implement online distance learning from home using school digital equipment, not their own. In basic schools, more than three quarters of the digital equipment is owned by the school. In upper secondary schools, less than three fifths of the digital equipment is owned by the school. The proportion of schools where digital equipment would not be available to at least most of the teachers is less than one per cent, with upper secondary schools predominating. 10 The methodology and related documents are available at www.edu.cz (direct link here).