Development of Educational Structure of Students in Upper Secondary and Post-Secondary Non-Tertiary Education

Abstract

The overview study is focused on the topic of the educational structure of both students and school leavers of upper secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education. It describes the educational structure development and explains the changes of percentage of students entering into upper secondary and post-secondary education. In order to describe the educational structure and its development, the study uses relative frequencies, which are, from the point of view catching the system dynamics and changes, more relevant than absolute frequencies. The starting point is the population development in the Czech Republic and its relation to the development of the distribution of students into categories of education. Besides the national level, the study presents the issue in regional perspective comparing diff erent regions from the point of view of the development of the distribution of diff erent categories of education. The study then deals with the development of the school leavers’ number and related problems. A comparison with other European countries is valuable for the conception of the educational policy. It shows that in the Czech Republic there is the highest number of students in technical fi elds of study and the lowest number in upper secondary grammar schools. The conclusion deals with the problem of the long-term demographic decline. Even if the distribution of students into diff erent categories of education is relatively stable, the impact of the demographic decline on the number of school leavers is that the employers’ demand for qualifi ed manpower is not met. The proportion of school leavers in diff erent categories of education is also infl uenced by other factors, fi rst of all the premature leavings of education. They present a great risk from the social cohesion point of view. Young people, who have not achieved any qualifi cation and have only primary education, are in danger of a repeated long-term unemployment with all the negative consequences in the area of social pathology phenomena.