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Constitutional Act no. 62/1978 Coll. which amends art. 24 para 2 of the Constitution of the Czechoslovak Socialistic Republic

Similarly as Constitutional Acts no. 110/1967 Coll. and no. 28/1968 Coll. this constitutional amendment proposed only small adjustments of the constitutional text which would otherwise prevent the planned legislative amendments in the respective fields from being adopted. This case concerned a reform of the educational system by, among others, introducing ten years of compulsory school. This intention, however, was not in line with the original wording of the 1960 Constitution which had established compulsory school for children until their 15 years of age. The new wording of the Constitution left the parliament certain margin for establishing the length of compulsory school. The explanatory report justified the margin with the necessity of gradual introduction of the ten years compulsory school. Deputy Prime Minister Lúčan stated at the Federal Assembly that the new legislation intended to allow admission to high school already after finishing eight years of the primary education. That is why regulating the length of compulsory school at the constitutional level would not have been suitable.

Beside the representative of the proposing department, two rapporteurs of both chambers of the Federal Assembly and three other deputies took part in the parliamentary debate. None of them, however, spoke directly about the constitutional amendment as they were concerned with the simultaneously pending legislative bills on the schooling reform. Therefore, there were no amendments proposed by the deputies.  

The Constitutional Bill was unanimously adopted in both chambers of the Federal Assembly and came into effect on 1 September 1978.