Rector of the CTU in Prague Vojtěch Petráček, on one side, and Director of the Bílá Primary School and Kindergarten Jiří Tomčala, on other side, confirmed the cooperation between the two educational institutions by signing a contract today. Pupils of the primary school will thus be able to encounter current knowledge of science and technology from an early age.
"The CTU recently organised the StreTech festival for high school students. I spoke with the principals of the participating schools and we agreed on the need to educate children in mathematics and technical fields from primary school. Appropriately for their age, of course, but also for their talent, which can be unprecedented. At the same time, it is necessary that technical disciplines at universities are studied by people with language skills, without which academic and scientific international cooperation at a quality level is not possible," said CTU Rector Petráček. The rector considers it a logical choice that the Bílá Language Primary School and Kindergarten became a partner school of the Czech Technical University not only because it is located in close proximity to the faculties of the CTU.
"Motivating pupils to explore the world around them and connecting it with school subjects can greatly help our efforts to educate children," said Jiří Tomčala, principal of the Bílá Primary School and Kindergarten. He recalled one of the first cooperation projects, which was a field trip of pupils to university classrooms and laboratories (video from the field trip here).
Marie Kubíková, the Prague 6 councillor for education and the initiator of this cooperation, was present at the signing of the memorandum. "I am very pleased that the project was able to be implemented despite the covida pandemic. The signing of the memorandum is the culmination of the first stage of cooperation and a promise of many more educational activities in the future," said the Prague 6 councillor. The municipal district is the founder of the Bílá Primary School and Kindergarten and in 2006 it was the sole investor in the extensive reconstruction of the school, which cost more than CZK 125 million. A rarity is the physics classroom, which was restored to its original state as it was furnished in 1935. The desks are equipped with both AC and DC power, and each desk has its own cabinet for equipment so that each pupil can carry out experiments on his or her own, as instructed by the teacher.
The school also has a modern computer room. As part of a pilot cooperation between the Czech Technical University in Prague and the Bílá Primary School, the programming courses at the school were led by Božena Mannová from the Department of Computers, who was also the organiser of the pupils' excursion to the academic environment. She was also present on the stage of today's VědaFest for the signing of the memorandum.
