Privatization of education in the Czech Republic

In order to better understand the process of privatisation of education as a new phenomenon in the Czech educational system the paper starts with a description of the pre-revolution characteristics of the system as a highly centralised administration based on the totalitarian Communist ideology and describes the main consequences of this system. The paper briefly shows the main changes in education after 1989. the de-politisation of education, the breaking up of the State monopoly, the recognition of the rights of pupils, the decentralisation in management and administration and the introduction of formula funding. It characterises non-state schools in the Czech Republic from various aspects: quantitative, qualitative, public and also the OECD experts' views. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.