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This week the government’s economic think tank, NERV, issued a report recommending, among several changes, that English be made the only obligatory foreign language in Czech schools. The idea is that time allocated for additional languages could be better spent on areas where until now many schools have been weak: the teaching of information technology or economic or financial literacy. A little earlier to I spoke to Daniel Munich, associate professor at CERGE-EI in Prague and a member of NERV.

Education Minister Josef Dobeš is under increasing pressure as a series of minor affairs have built up over recent weeks into opposition calls for his resignation. Reports indicate that even some members within his Public Affairs party are seeking his replacement. However, party officials and Prime Minister Petr Nečas are standing by Mr Dobeš and blaming the media for sensationalism.

Political parties in the Czech Republic have just agreed some of the main lines of how a future president would be elected by the people for the first time. But while the main agreement is in place a lot of the details are still missing – and that’s where the devil lurks. We look at the progress towards direct presidential elections. Justice Minister Jiří Pospíšil on Wednesday outlined the main planks on how a future president could be elected.

It has been 90 years since the publication of the first part of, Jaroslav Hašek’s The Good Soldier Švejk. The four-part novel (which Hašek failed to complete before his death at 40) introduced his good-natured protagonist famously reacting to the assassination of the archduke in Sarajevo in 1914. He asks his charwoman “Which Ferdinand, Mrs Muller? I know two...”, oblivious to the gravity of developments. The novel has long since been recognised as a satirical masterpiece, and has been translated into more than 50 languages.

Preparations are being made to recover what is being dubbed a part of the lost literary heritage of Prague and the Czech Republic. These are some of the many letters written by world renowned author Franz Kafka of which almost no examples are left in his homeland.

On Monday the last Czechs remaining in Libya departed for home in light of the increased violence and unrest in the country. A day earlier the Czech Embassy in Tripoli shut down temporarily, with all diplomatic staff, including the Czech ambassador, flying back to Prague. Currently, no one knows which direction the situation in the country will take, as anti-government forces clash with those loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

The Czech Republic is preparing to mark the 60th birthday of the launch of Radio Free Europe broadcasts in Czech across the Iron Curtain to Czechoslovakia. The broadcasts were a key factor in telling people under communism not only what was really happening in their own country but also keeping them up to date about events in the West.

The Czech Jewish writer, Arnošt Lustig died in Prague on Saturday at the age of 84. A survivor of several Nazi concentration camps, he made the Holocaust the central theme of his work that includes novels Dita Saxová, A Prayer for Kateřina Horovitzová, Lovely Green Eyes, and many others. He also worked as a reporter at Radio Prague in the 1950s.

The Czech Statistical Office is gearing up for the 2011 population and housing census which is to take place on March 25th-26th. The massive undertaking involving thousands of people took five years to prepare and is preceded by a nationwide media campaign.

The Czech annual Anděl music awards for 2010 were handed out on Wednesday. Three prizes went to the band Nightwork which parodies the 1980s. The Anděl awards highlighted some interesting music endeavours in 2010 but critics say they fail to reflect what’s really progressive in Czech pop music.