Ostrava: City of Education and Sports

Ostrava: City of Education and Sports Deputy Mayor of Ostrava, Ms Andrea Hoffmannová studied and also taught American studies at university before becoming a politician. Education has remained her priority at the Town Hall where she is responsible for schools and sports. Ms Hoffmannová, Ostrava is a city extremely agile in supporting gifted and talented children and students. Will you tell us more? The great topic discussed by experts and the media in the past few years has been social inclusion and support to pupils with a physical handicap or living in a socially-disadvantaged background. Ostrava is active and successful in social inclusion. On the other hand, even the previous government understood that the future and positive development of Ostrava is through the progress of industries with added value and modern technologies and in support of talented pupils and students. We want families, schools and the environment to motivate and support our children’s talents because that is how they might bring higher added value to our economy and culture within a few years, and also improve the reputation of our city and region. Our special funding programme systematically supports foreign language instruction at the elementary schools in Ostrava, and our Merit Scholarship programme helps talented students from Ostrava get to 32 ǀ POSITIV 1/2020 prestigious foreign universities. Our programme of talent management is the flagship project: special funding supports language, scientific and technical subjects at elementary and secondary schools as well as at universities. Their attractive forms bring children to laboratories where they do science experiments or assemble their first robots. Another novelty is talent coordinators and career advisors who help children develop their natural talents, advise them in career choices, and organize field trips. Since 2019 you have been visiting elementary school canteens with the chef David Valíček, teaching staff to cook tasty, attractive meals. What exactly does the project Fajnové bistro (“Fine Cafeteria”) involve? Are school managements interested and how do the cooks in schools respond? First, I want to say that the quality of school canteens in Ostrava is generally high, and both the managements of schools and the staff try very hard to serve children the best.