Abstract
The aim of the article is to contribute to the research of educational inequalities in the Czech educational system by analyzing the educational aspirations of pupils at the end of compulsory education and the factors determining their success in the transition to graduation. After completing the 9th year of elementary school, pupils choose between three types of educational programs with very different curricula: gymnasium, secondary vocational education with A-level and secondary vocational education without A-level.
The decision to choose a program is a family matter, and the school usually enters it at least. The aim of the article is to find out to what extent the aspirations for graduation and the success in transition to graduation are influenced by the knowledge of pupils, their school achievement and socio-economic status.
It also examines the extent to which aspirations for graduation are conditioned by a feeling of academic ruin and a relationship to school. The data obtained from the PISA-L research from 5182 pupils of the 9th grade and the data obtained from the research CLoSE (Czech Longitudinal Study of Education) in 2016 from the 4489 pupils of the 9th grade were used in the canalysis.
Logistic regression has shown that the family background is an important predictor of both aspirations to graduation and success in entering graduation studies and taking into account pupils' learning outcomes. This means that pupils from families with lower socio-economic status are disadvantaged in access to graduation, even if they have the same benefit and knowledge as their peers from families with higher socio-economic status.
It also showed that aspirations to study the non-maturita field are not conditioned by negative relations to school or by feelings of academic ruin.