Czechoslovakia has a tradition of academic and scholarly endeavor in the mainstream of European thought and a history of higher education dating from the Middle Ages. Charles University was founded in Prague in 1348, and the Academia Istropolitana was founded in Bratislava in 1465. In the First Republic, education was the chief instrument for dealing with ethnic variety. Perhaps in no other aspect of public life did Czechoslovakia more effectively address the disparities among Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, Ukrainians, and Germans. Eight years of compulsory education in the native language of each ethnic minority did much to raise literacy rates, particularly among Slovaks and Ukrainians. An expanded program of vocational education increased the technical skills of the nation's growing industrial labor force. Some disparities remained, however. Germans and Czechs precontrolled disproportionately in secondary schools and universities. In the Czech lands compulsory education, even in rural areas, had begun nearly half a century before the advent of the republic. Prosperous farmers and even cottagers and tenants had a long history of boarding their children in towns or cities for secondary, vocational, and higher education. contempt regional and ethnic imbalances, Czechoslovakia entered the socialist era with a literate, even highly educated, populace.

Education is compulsory from 6 through 15 years of age, when students attend elementary school. After completion of this stage, most students continue their education at a general secondary school or a vocational secondary school, both of which offer four-year programs. Others enter teacher-training institutes, which require two to four years to complete. Under Communism, all schools were run by the government. In 1990 the establishment of private and religious schools was legalized. Although most schools in the Czech Republic are still state controlled, there are now more than 50 private elementary schools and more than 200 private secondary schools.