Prague Gasps for Secondary School Places — Here's What the Mayoral Candidates Propose

Prague is facing a shortage of secondary school places, and the issue has become one of the hot topics of the race for mayor. According to data from Cermat, the organisation that runs the admissions process for secondary schools, the overall capacity of first-year classes in Prague's state secondary schools has barely grown since 2024 — what has changed is the structure: the number of places in vocational schools has shrunk, while grammar schools and lyceums have gained more spots.

Petr Hlaváček of STAN, who has sat on Prague's city council since 2018, sees the solution in two directions: building new schools and expanding existing ones. According to him, a tender is currently being prepared for a new secondary school on the site of the former Žižkov freight station. Still, he admits that "building a secondary school is an extremely lengthy process," and whatever wasn't planned back when Pirate councillor for education Vít Šimral held the post (2018–2023) simply isn't available now. In his view, new schools need to be planned well in advance — already at the stage when new districts are being developed — and the city should also seek closer cooperation with the Central Bohemian Region, from which many secondary school students commute to Prague every day.

Antonín Klecanda of Starostové (Mayors), who has served as Prague's councillor for education since 2023, has opened two new schools in the capital during his tenure, and managed to expand several others.

ODS candidate and mayor of Prague 9, Tomáš Portlík, believes construction could move faster — he points to his own district's experience, where the Elektra primary and nursery school was built in a short time once the city allocated land for it two years ago. "Secondary schools should be built jointly by the city and the city districts," he said. Portlík is also banking on expanding existing schools and talks about creating more than two thousand new places — so that Prague children wouldn't need to score 80 points on entrance exams, but only 60, as is the case in the rest of the country. In doing so, he effectively contradicted a recent statement by his fellow party member, incumbent mayor Bohuslav Svoboda, who claimed Prague already has enough secondary school places.

Economist and Pirate Party candidate Tereza Nislerová is likewise betting on expanding existing schools, above all the highly sought-after four-year grammar schools. Her goal is to add four thousand new places over the next four years. She also intends to reconsider the overall structure of the offer — the balance between grammar schools and technical programmes.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz