Abstract
Curricula with underdeveloped progression, lacking coherence and rigor, could have negative effects on pupils' knowledge. This may be the case of poor performance of Czech pupils in international studies of educational achievement (TIMSS, PISA).
Using the method of international benchmarking, we show that reading literacy as a core skill has not been stressed in the past and present Czech curricular documents. The expected progression that occurs during the lower secondary school (grades 6-9) is not described enough.
In the field of numeracy, there is an important discrepancy between the Czech and international curriculum documents regarding the crucial topics of fractions and decimals. This topic is introduced in 6^th grade in the Czech framework, while international curricula build the concept of fraction since during the early primary grades.