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The European Roma Rights Centre has criticised across-the-board testing of fifth and ninth graders in the Czech Republic, saying that the plan could worsen the segregation of Roma schoolchildren. The testing plan, promoted by outgoing Education Minister Josef Dobeš, is meant to be used to rank schools and thereby establish the funding they receive. According to the centre, that would encourage many schools to move weaker students to so-called “special schools”. The ERRC has long criticised the Czech Republic for the inordinate presence of Roma in such schools, which are intended for children with learning disabilities. The plan is meant to take effect in 2014.

Education Minister Josef Dobeš has announced his decision to resign and will be leaving his post at the end of the month. Mr. Dobeš, a minister for the junior Public Affairs party, explained his decision at a press briefing in Prague on Thursday saying he could not accept a further slash to the ministry’s budget which would mean cutting teachers’ salaries and in effect violating the government’s policy programme.

Prime Minister Petr Nečas said the decision was honourable, as he had asked the cabinet to either approve a total of 23.6 billion in cuts unanimously or else resign. Mr Dobeš is one of the most contentious members of the government, having been criticized for mismanagement of EU funds, a botched university reform and most recently his decision to extend the accreditation of the Plzeň faculty of law, a decision he was technically not entitled to make. He is the eighth minister to leave the current government.

Two EU commissioners - László Andor, the EU commissioner responsible for employment and social affairs, and the Commissioner for Regional Policy Johannes Hahn – are holding talks with top government officials in Prague. The main issue on the agenda is the country’s apparent inability to resolve its problems with subsidy control in drawing EU funds. The matter came to a head on Wednesday when the European Commission threatened to halt the payment of all EU subsidies unless the country’s government improved the control and audit of EU subsidy programmes by June of this year. The visiting EU commissioners are debating the issue with Prime Minister Petr Nečas, and the ministers of finance, local development, social affairs and education.

The Czech Republic will host the 2015 football European under-21 championships. The decision was announced at a meeting of Europe’s football governing body, UEFA, in Istanbul on Tuesday. The Czech Republic, which was competing against four six other countries to hold the even, received eight out of fourteen votes, the news website idnes.cz reported. Games will be played at four venues: two in Prague and one in Olomouc and Uherské Hradiště.

Czech Agriculture Minister Petr Bendl has accused supermarket chains of taking advantage of the egg shortage. Speaking in Brussels on Tuesday, Mr Bendl said people should not buy large quantities of eggs, and wait for the prices to go down. Prices of eggs skyrocketed in the Czech Republic in recent months due to EU regulations on hen cages; these inhibit import of eggs from countries that have not yet adopted the new rules.

In the Czech Republic, egg prices have increased sharply in recent weeks as a result of a new EU directive that strives to improve conditions in laying hen farms. Since many farmers have failed to implement the new regulations in time, eggs are now in short supply in some countries. Some Czech consumers have even started buying large quantities in neighboring Germany. How will the situation develop ahead of Easter?

The Education Ministry failed to create any basic requirements for assessing whether state leaving exams met their objectives, the Supreme Audit Office has reported. The report, published on Monday, also says that the central authority responsible for preparing the exams concluded contracts for exam assessment systems without knowing their final cost, thus wasting large amounts of money. Moreover, the office found that the technical infrastructure for the exams has only been paid for until 2014, meaning the continuation of the exams past that point will require further expenses. The Education Ministry expended 917 million crowns on introducing the exams, roughly a third of which came from EU funds.

Czechs’ confidence in the European Union is at its lowest point since 1994, according to the results of a new poll conducted by the STEM agency. Confidence in the European Parliament reached the same historic low, with around a third of respondents saying they trusted the bodies. According to data from STEM, faith in the European Union was at its highest in the Czech Republic in the years 1999 and 2000, when 62% responded favourably. The percentage has been in consistent decline since 2010. Both the EU and the EP tended to be supported by younger, more educated and more wealthy respondents who were most often voters of the Civic Democrat or TOP 09 parties.

The difference between wages and pensions in the Czech Republic is greater than the EU average, data from the OECD suggest. On average, pension payments in the Czech Republic amount to about half of what an employee earned before retiring. The EU average is 57.5 percent. The gap may grow even further since the Czech government is currently preparing a pension reform that would put any increase in pensions on ice for the next three years. In Austria, Denmark and Hungary, pensioners are paid about three quarters of their previous wage. In Britain, the pension retired men and women receive amounts to only a third of what they were earning before retirement.

The opposition Social Democrats have slammed the fact that EU subsidies to the Czech Republic were suspended, labeling it “an embarrassment” for the country and a serious problem for the state budget as well as municipal budgets. Party leader Bohuslav Sobotka and deputy leader Lubomír Zaorálek said at a news conference on Thursday that due to the suspension of EU subsidies, the government was forced to take greater austerity measures than had been planned. The government needed to make the process of applying for EU funds more transparent and take more responsibility, they added.