In this page

1. Existence of a National Youth Strategy

2. Scope and contents

3. Responsible authority for the implementation of the Youth Strategy

4. Revisions/updates

Existence of a National Youth Strategy

Since January 2021, there is no overarching National Youth Strategy anymore. However, after a pressure from the Czech Council of Children and Youth, in December 2022, the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports decided to develop a new one. After a year of hesitation, it is being drafted in the course of 2024. Partial aspects of supporting Youth Work and non-formal education are now mentioned in the new Education Strategy 2030+ with prioritization of connecting formal and non-formal education. 

Between 1999 and 2020, there have been four Youth Policy Strategies in the Czech Republic. The first governmental Youth Policy Strategy was introduced in 1999 - 2002. The second strategy was valid in 2002-2007, the third was valid from 2007-2013 and the last was a National Youth Strategy for years 2014-2020 (Koncepce podpory mládeže na období 2014 – 2020, Governmental Decree no. 342 of 12 May 2014).

Each strategy was based on the evaluation of the previous document and its implementation, with inclusion of new needs, with the exception of the 2014 - 2020 Strategy, which was subject to a mid-term evaluation in 2017, with a final evaluation conducted in 2021 by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. 

The 2020 OECD Report Governance for Youth, Trust and Intergenerational Justice. Fit for All Generations? (OECD 2020) marked the last Czech Youth Strategy as the 6th most successful worldwide, based on its inclusiveness, budgetary allocation and monitoring and evaluation procedures.

Scope and contents

Strategy for the Education Policy of the Czech Republic up to 2030+ has two strategic objectives:

1. Focus education more on the acquisition of competences needed for an active civic, professional and personal life.

2. Reduce inequalities in access to quality education and pave the way for the maximum development of the potential of children, pupils and students.

Apart from strategic objectives, it has five strategic lines. 

The first strategic line ‘Transforming the content, methods and assessment of education’ focuses also on non-formal education and lifelong learning. 

Non-formal education is defined as:

Non-formal education is aimed at the development of knowledge, skills and competences in employers’ establishments, private educational institutions, school facilities (e.g. leisure education, which provides participants with activities during their leisure time that focus on various fields), non-governmental organisations, memory institutions (especially libraries and museums), art and other cultural institutions, science centres and other organisations. Non-formal education includes some organised leisure activities for children, young people and adults, such as courses, retraining, training and lectures. A prerequisite for the provision of non-formal education is the participation of a professional lecturer, teacher, educator, trainer or trained leader. However, it does not normally lead to the attainment of an accepted level of education unless it is subsequently recognised by a competent authority or institution.

The strategy also aims to:

• Supporting leisure time activities and youth work with educational elements
• Interlinking different forms of education
• Innovative forms of work with children
• After-school care and school clubs

• Outcomes of non-formal education

   

The 2014-2020 Youth Strategy consisted of:

1. Pillars determining the set of principles upon which the expected impact of the Strategy 2020 on young people is based.
2. Horizontal priorities taking into account the key areas of intervention across all strategic and operational goals.
3. Strategic goals referring to a defined idea of how Youth Strategy 2020 should contribute to specific areas of youth policy in the long term, until 2020.
4. Operational goals are breaking down this vision in terms of the short, medium and long-term fulfilment of the strategic objectives.
5. Measures defining specific directions to take to achieve the desired operational goals.

Responsible authority for the implementation of the Youth Strategy

The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports is the central state authority in the youth field. 

It was responsible for implementing, coordinating and monitoring of the Youth Strategy 2014-2020. The main coordinating body until the end of 2019 was the Youth Department at the Ministry and the Youth Chamber (see details in Chapter 1.4). Since 2020 the responsibility was placed within the  Children and Youth Development Unit at the Department of Primary Education and Youth. (In the first part of 2020 the unit was within the Department for Further Education and Youth).

This administrative and governance arrangement could be influenced by a lower level of competences in the formal manner of coordination and policy management across various sectors and policy levels (see analyses e.g. Bárta, Boček, Husák 2014). However, in general, an integrated cross-sectoral Youth Policy was in play. It was targeted and was working with its competence to implement decentralisation. Thus, there is a huge variety of other national strategies tackling particular youth issues and more specific policies.

The responsibility for any youth programme always lies with the initiating authority, unless it is transferred to another authority.

Responsible authorities range from ministries and their directly controlled agencies to the Office of the Government and its sections depending on the relevant subtopics and by some issues to regional or local Authorities.

Since the end of 2013 no state agency has directly focused on youth. Until the end of 2013, responsibility was with the National Institute for Children and Youth (in operation since the 1950s with different competences and names). Before the end of its existence most of the tasks of the Institute were transferred to other state agencies. In January 2022, a new department for Youth and Non-formal and Leisure based education was created within the National Pedagogy Institute of the Czech Republic, which ceased to exist by the end of 2023.

The Erasmus+ Youth Programme and the European Solidarity Corps Program are managed by the Czech National Agency for International Education and Research. 

Revisions/updates

The Education Strategy 2030+ is not expected to be updated. However, its implementation is accompanied by the ‘implementation cards’ for a period of three years. These cards focus on the priorities during that period, in line with the strategy and identify concrete steps and measures to be implemented during the period.  

The impact evaluation of the National Youth Strategy 2014-2020 on the target group was carried out through national youth reports at the mid-term in 2017 and by the final in 2021. Both reports are not publicly accessible. 

On 12 February 2018 the Supreme Audit Office of the Czech Republic published its audit report about the finances in the Youth sector. This report was very critical to the implementation and evaluation of the Youth Policy and the Youth Strategy. The report  concludes that the Strategy does not have real indicators, that the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports did not have an outline of the implementation tools in other sectors and that the Mid-term evaluation from May 2017 contained mistakes and misleading information.

Further, the Supreme Audit Office is of the opinion that the Youth Strategy could not be evaluated on the impacts of its target populations according Governmental decision due to missing indicators. The youth department opposed the report in some aspects. However, the argumentation is not publicly available.