What is at stake is whether in the new, globalized, knowledge-based economy, the education system will be able to produce sufficiently open-minded, flexible and, at the same time, highly qualified individuals who will be able to compete on the international market.

The British educational system, for one, is undergoing dramatic change. The government of Prime Minister Tony Blair is worried that if a high proportion of the population is not highly qualified, the country will falter in international economic competition. Blair's government is planning to have 50 percent of all grammar school students go on to university by 2010. Top British educationalists argue that the 19th-century model of education --- must be discarded due to new economic conditions.

The proposal to open up higher education to is controversial and means that British universities, in adapting to a mass market, are being forced to undergo profound change, not all of it desirable. Nevertheless, the debate over education is taking place in Britain, as well as in other European countries.

Strangely enough, the Czech Republic does not seem to be interested in such educational debate. And yet, there seem to be many things to discuss. The Czech Association of Educational Trade Unions recently listed what it sees as a number of serious, neglected issues in the Czech educational system. According to a recent press release, many elementary schools in the Czech Republic now employ unqualified teachers. The average age of Czech teachers is 50 and growing -- there is no new generation of teachers. The Czech Republic spends less of its GDP, in percentage terms, on education than the EU average. Schools suffer from huge internal debt. Czech teachers are mostly women and underpaid. The Ministry of Education does not have a program for financing libraries, and there is little modern technology in schools.

But the main problem seems to be the attitudes of many Czech teachers. More than 15 years after the fall of communism, the Czech educational system remains incredibly rigid, judging by its results. The system seems to be obsessed with teaching large amounts of encyclopedic data, which instructors think they must cram into the heads of their unfortunate students. One elementary school teacher requires her pupils, in studying nature, to learn by heart the features of nine types of grass -- pupils are required to recite these characteristics when being tested. Czech schools do not seem to cultivate independent, analytical and critical thinking. They do not teach students how to express themselves, how to speak in public or how to write.

I run an EU student exchange with three Czech universities. The culture clash is immediately apparent. It's disturbing to see 22-year-old Czechs stick to a rigid, closed interpretation of reality, based on what they were taught in Czech schools and what they see in their society. So, after their brief stint in the "hostile" outside world, they scuttle back to their "cozy" Czech environment. As one of my British students said, after studying both in Brno and in Berlin: "German students debate things internationally; Czech students talk only among themselves." How will the Czech Republic fare with this kind of educational system?

Originally published in Czech Business Weekly HERE