Appeal against non-admission to high school

If you find discrepancies in your file or experience unfair treatment during the exam, we recommend filing an appeal. It is submitted in written form to the school’s principal and handled by the respective Regional Authority (or Prague City Hall).

You have the right to file an appeal even if you replaced the unified entrance exam in the Czech language with an interview.

There’s absolutely no need to worry — filing an appeal won’t have an impact on admission to other schools. It represents the only way to defend your rights and the rights of other applicants in the same situation.

When and how to file an appeal

The submission deadline is 3 working days after the publication of results within the specific round.
The dates for the current year are published in our News section and on the prihlaskynastredni.cz web portal.
We recommend sending a registered letter or an electronic message using the data box directly to the high school.

What reasons should be stated in the appeal?

It’s essential to provide a detailed description of the proceedings of the admission procedure and give reasons why you think there was something amiss. Provide as much evidence as you can. While we recommend making use of your right to inspect your file, it’s not a prerequisite for filing an appeal.

General reasons for filing an appeal include:

Doubts about the exam being conducted fairly or the evaluation being correct
Suspicion of the applicant’s rights violation during the exam
The applicant’s performance being negatively impacted by their health (medical certificate needed)

More specific reasons include:

The exam was terminated prematurely, and the applicant wasn’t allowed to pass all the parts of the exam.
The committee members treated the applicant with prejudice.
The applicant was deprived of their right to inspect their file or its parts.
The exam proceedings document doesn’t describe truthfully what the exam actually looked like.
Discrepancies in the evaluation have been found in the file.
The information about the exam in the admission procedure criteria didn’t correspond to what the exam actually looked like or was unavailable.

Things to keep in mind:

It may take up to two months for an appeal against non-admission to be handled. During the whole period, you’re considered as not admitted to the school.
There’s no guarantee your appeal will be allowed.
Do not rely on your appeal being allowed, apply to another round of the admission procedure.
If your appeal from the 1st round is allowed, having applied to another round or admission to another school don’t preclude admission to the school you had originally applied to and that allowed your appeal.

Filing an appeal against the proceedings of the entrance interview that verifies the applicant’s proficiency in Czech

The Ministry of Education and the National Pedagogical Institute issued a recommendation for high schools concerning the admission procedure in 2025 (the school year 2025/2026). The document details the structure of a sample interview and the principles that should be followed by the interviewers.

Among other things, the recommendation says that “the Education Act implies that the interview does not serve for a comprehensive assessment of proficiency in Czech, but rather for verifying an elementary knowledge needed for studying the selected program.”
The school is supposed to verify your language proficiency to make sure you’ll be able to study the program you’ve selected. You shouldn’t be tested on advanced knowledge of the language or expert knowledge that you’ll acquire in school in the future.

Information about what the exam and the questions will look like should be published in advance on the school’s website as part of the admission criteria. This allows applicants to prepare for the exam and to make an informed choice about their future school based on transparent admission criteria.

An applicant must be allowed to pass all parts of an interview. A premature termination means violation of the applicant’s rights.

What reasons to give when filing an appeal against the proceedings of the interview replacing the unified entrance exam in the Czech language?

Apart from a detailed description of how the interview went and the points described above, you may also raise some of the following points:

The interview was much more difficult in comparison to how it’s described in the recommendation issued by the MYES and the NPI, or it was conducted in a way that is at variance with the principles described in the recommendation.
There were discrepancies or errors, or the proficiency level and skills that the interview focused on didn’t correspond to those it’s supposed to verify.
A part of your file wasn’t shared with you during inspection.
The admission procedure criteria published on the school’s website were different from the actual exam.
The committee members’ behavior was incorrect or inappropriate during the interview (disparaging and humiliating the applicant, treating them with prejudice, etc.).