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This follows from data published on the website by the test organizer Cermat. According to him, 73,774 students applied for the state matura exams this year, of which 70,084 will go to the state matura for the first time. The tests will be written on May 2-5.
At the same time, interest in the German high school diploma is constantly declining.
According to the amendment to the law from 2020, Cermat only organizes didactic tests. Oral and written exams in Czech and foreign languages have moved to the school level. Styles can be held together with practical graduations from April 1, for oral periods are reserved from May 16 to June 10. School principals decide on a specific date. Last year, due to the covid-19 epidemic, compulsory styles and oral language exams did not take place.
According to the law, state graduation is compulsory in Czech and students choose the second subject between mathematics and a foreign language. 70,084 first-year graduates should take the Czech language test this year, which is approximately 900 less than last year. 57,858 students, ie 82.6 percent of all, signed up for a foreign language. The rest chose math.
Interest in a foreign language increased by 1.8 percentage points year-on-year. In the case of English, which was selected by 56,007 high school graduates, it increased by 2.3 percentage points. The proportion of those enrolled in German, Russian and French fell, rising slightly in Spanish.
An optional more difficult exam in extension mathematics should be 2778 first-year graduates. It's 21 less than last year. Their share remained similar to last year, ie around 3.9 percent of all. This exam is most often used by high school students.
Ten years ago, 44 percent of graduates chose mathematics
The popularity of the matriculation examination in mathematics has been declining every year since 2012, when 43.9 percent of the applicants chose it as the second graduation subject. Their share has since fallen by almost 27 percentage points.
In contrast, 46.6 percent of high school graduates preferred English ten years ago, and its popularity has grown by almost 34 percentage points over the period. At the same time, interest in German was steadily declining.
When comparing different types of schools, high school graduates most often choose a high school diploma in mathematics. This year, 31 percent of them enrolled in mathematics and 65.6 percent in English. When divided according to the length of study, mathematics is most popular with students from eight-year grammar schools. It was elected by 37.2 percent of them, while in four-year grammar schools 26.9 percent. On the contrary, the least popular is the exam in mathematics at vocational schools, where it will be taken by 9.9 percent of high school graduates.
This year, most students will go to graduation in Prague for the first time, namely 12,172. On the other hand, 1,481 applied in the Karlovy Vary Region, which is the lowest. About 30 percent of all graduates are high school students and about half are high school students. About seven percent are from vocational schools, roughly the same share from postgraduate studies, and another five percent are high school students.
According to the 2020 decree, the test results are not graded, but are evaluated as a percentage and with the words "passed" or "failed". The schools will receive the results from Cermat on 15 May and will pass them on to the pupils no later than a day later, as Cermat spokesman Marek Lehečka said. According to him, the analysis of the results for the public will be available from June 8.