The intention of establishing the principles of equality in education requires the provision of equal conditions for
all pupils, including pupils with special educational needs. This fact is reflected by the strategic plans of the Czech
Republic in the education system and the related legislative changes that place increased demands on the capacity of
the educational system to provide adequate support for pupils threatened by social exclusion, pupils from different
cultural backgrounds and other pupils with special educational needs.
The project focuses on improving quality, interconnection, comparability and efficiency of counselling services. The newly prepared system of support measures for pupils, for whom it is necessary to equalize the conditions of their education, is based on increasing the level of counselling and intervention care provided in cooperation of schools and school counselling centres with other elements of the education system.
The realization of the project will contribute to the improvement of professional skills of school counselling centres staff and the teaching staff in identifying and providing support measures in education, in setting up the standard level of counselling services, and in coordinating them. The project strengthens the capacity of school counselling and counselling centres to provide effective support for pupils, contributes to the establishment of rules for the provided services and to the assessment of their effectiveness.
The specific steps to achieve the above objectives are in particular: the verification and implementation of standards of school counselling services, identification and description of the standard interventional procedures, widening of methodical resources for interventions in counselling, support for the implementation of an inspection centre, promotion of new forms of work in the field of counselling services - verification of case conferences and definition of the conditions of supervision in school counselling services. Further, methodological guidance in the early identification of needed support measures, modification of the system of record keeping, reporting and documentation of counselling services, modification in the standards of cooperation between schools, school counselling teams[1] (SPP), school counselling centres (SPZ) and other partners (families, school counselling centre authorities, bodies of social and legal protection of children, NGOs and NPOs), education of counsellors, teachers and school leaders, and school centres in the programmes of further education of teachers (FEOT) focused on the stated subjects and principles.
The target groups of the project are children and pupils, teachers of kindergartens, primary schools, secondary schools, employees of school counselling centres (SPZ), senior managers of schools and school centres, employees of organisations involved in education, research and counselling, public employees and school authorities active in education policy, university students (future teaching staff) and the public. The project anticipates the effect on the functioning of the entire network of school counselling centres, where we expect the participation of most of these centres, pedagogical and psychological counselling centres (PPP) and special pedagogical centres (SPC), and furthermore the participation of selected schools in cooperation with the project Support of Regional Action Planning and the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic (Agency for Social Inclusion).
The planned duration of the individual system project is 36 months. The project is implemented by the National Institute for Education.
[1] School counselling teams provide counselling services in individual schools, however, they do not have the form of an "office" or some independent organisational unit represented in the framework of the school. They are formed by a team of prevention methodologist, guidance/career counsellor, in its extended form complemented by special pedagogue and/or school psychologist. Abbreviation used is SPP. School counselling centres are separate organizational units providing counselling in education, and their staff comprises mostly psychologists, special pedagogues and social workers. Abbreviation used is PPP.