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

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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.