In the last ten years, the Czech Republic participated in numerous international comparative studies measuring knowledge and skills of school children in various subject areas. The studies have brought a lot of notable information on gender differences in student outcomes. Unfortunately, these findings met very limited attention of the Czech society and educational policymakers. The aim of this article is to summarize key findings about gender differences in the areas of reading, mathematics and science and to show the relationships between student results and their educational aspirations and attitudes.
The study focuses on the compatriot community in Ukraine, particularly on the Crimea peninsula. In the introduction, attention is paid to the history of settlement of southern Ukraine by the Czech ethnic group in the 1860s. The reasons which made several hundreds of people leave their home region, their mother country, the initial problems they had to deal with in the new land, adaptation to the new living conditions, etc. are further discussed. Apart from the past, this essay also covers the present situation. This is the period when the former Czech villages have become multinational, while the Czechs do not form the majority population in any of them as they used to in the past. In spite of the gradual irrepressible process of assimilation, the Czech Republic tries to help its compatriots. This concerns above all the funding of reconstruction of associational buildings, purchase of their equipment, assistance with organizing compatriot meetings and so on. the main emphasis is, however, on the field of education, especially on Czech language retention.