Hello and welcome to Living Czech. I'm Nick Carey and I'm here with Alena Skodova. Today's theme should take you all way back. Back to school that is. What is school like for children in the Czech Republic?

Well, as in most countries, the are three stages of education. They are split as follows: základní škola, literally means basic school and is the equivalent of a primary school, although children start this school aged six and attend until they are fifteen. Prior to základní škola, most children, but not all, go to školka, which literally means little, or nursery school, from the age of three to six.

Základní škola is followed by střední škola, literally middle school, which is the equivalent of high school, and for children aged fourteen to eighteen. After this comes vysoká škola, which literally means high school, which is quite confusing, as it is a university.

A class of students is a třída, which also means a year in primary and high school. So druhá třída is the second year of school, for children aged seven. A pupil at school is often referred to as a školák or žák.

Your teacher at school is an učitel if male, and an učitelka if female, which is far more likely in the Czech Republic. Under the Communist regime, teachers were addressed as soudružko učitelko, or comrade teacher. This was often shortened to souško, which also means a dried-up, dead tree. Nowadays, teachers are addressed as paní učitelko, or literally Mrs. Teacher. The shortened version of this pančelko. A form teacher is a třidní, or class teacher.

Once Czech children reach high school, there is a grading system for all zkoušky, exams, or domácí úkol, homework. This system works from one to five, and works like this: a jednička, or one, is for výborný or excellent work, a dvojka, or two, is for chvalitebný or praiseworthy work, a trojka is for dobrý or good work, a čtyřka is for dostatečný or sufficient work, and a pětka is for nedostatečný or insufficient work. If you have even one pětka, then you are a repetent, which means you have to repeat the year. In vysoká škola, the system is a little different. There are only three grades, and if you get lower than a trojka, or three, then you fail the year and have to repeat.

In the classroom itself, there are several names for types of pupils common in all societies. There is the šplhoun, or teacher's pet, there is the šprt or swot, or even geek, and also the žalobníček, or the telltale. For children who misbehave, they have to být po škole, or stay after shcool, and clean the blackboards or do extra homework. And this punishment is also meted out to children who chodějí za školu, or skip school.

Well, that's all we have time for this week. Next week we will have a look at sickness and health in Czech. So until then, mějte se fajn, or take care.

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