The Czechs and Slovaks – the past joins, the future as a challenge Erasmus Project

Project Title

The Czechs and Slovaks – the past joins, the future as a challenge

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture; Cooperation between educational institutions and business; Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy)

Project Summary

První české gymnázium v Karlových Varech (The First Czech Grammar School in Karlovy Vary) as the applicant for the project has been looking for a new, fresh approach to international student exchanges. As we have recently celebrated a hundred years since the founding of Czechoslovakia, we came up with the idea to build a possible future cooperation on the common cultural heritage of both nations, the Czechs and the Slovaks.
Our school´s coordinator´s personal relations in the Levoča region as well as her deep knowledge of the region´s historic ties with the Karlovy Vary region gave birth to a vision of a strategic partnership with the grammar school in Levoča, namely the Gymnázium J. Francisciho-Rimavského (J. Francisci-Rimavsky´s Grammar School). For both grammar schools, this was the first experience with the strategic partnership project, but the experience gained in the implementation of other and international projects was a good prerequisite for the successful implementation of this project. The main goals were to contribute to meeting the needs of increasing and improving students’ competencies in various areas (eg to cooperate effectively in a team, collect data, evaluate them and draw conclusions, critically approach the information obtained, form their own opinion on various facts and be able to discuss and defend their views and attitudes), further integrate knowledge from different areas of education in a way that can be applied in long-term life. The project started according to the schedule, the students of both grammar schools participated in it together with their pedagogues.However, the Covid pandemic made it impossible to carry out the whole project as originally planned. This is despite the fact that the dates of the short-term exchanges of pupils and teachers at partner schools have been postponed. A big problem turned out to be that each of the participating countries approached the pandemic differently with its measures, so that what would eventually allow departure from the Czech Republic was not possible from the Slovak side. Due to force majeure, 2 short-term exchange stays and follow-up planned activities were not carried out due to force majeure.
However, we managed to more or less successfully implement the second group of activities at individual schools, ie. The ones that were to take place at both grammar schools. Project websites were created within the schools’ websites, information and motivational workshops led by national coordinators took place, thanks to which pupils got acquainted with the partner city, historical and cultural-social realities. The joint competition for the project logo at both schools meant the creation of a logo that expresses the intention and goals of the mutual cooperation project. Both groups of involved pupils also cooperated in the preparation of the partner school’s stay both in the area of ​​the program – partial activities, as well as in the area of ​​preparation of facilities for the partners. What could not be realized were the intended follow-up activities and further deepening of cooperation, given that, according to the project plan, they were very closely connected to the exchange stays themselves. As it turned out, despite unfavorable conditions and the possibility to implement the project, we can perceive as a partial success of the project the improvement of student skills in project teaching, international cooperation, teamwork, research approaches and their evaluation, critical thinking development, constructive dialogue, formulation of opinions and their defense, which was shown in the individual workshops and preparatory meetings.
In the long term, we plan to continue the partnership between the two participating schools to submit a new application under the DZS call in the area of ​​small-scale partnerships for the coming period. We want to use the created communication channels in the form of websites and contacts of the involved teachers not only for promotion, but also to motivate new students to participate in the intended project, as well as its use within the lessons.

Project Website

http://gymkvary.cz/node/1721

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 8863,3 Eur

Project Coordinator

Prvni ceske gymnazium v Karlovych Varech, prispevkova organizace & Country: CZ

Project Partners

• Gymnazium J. Francisciho-Rimavskeho