Abstract
The article summarizes the development of the Czech school from the Austrian and First Republic traditions through the period of communist dictatorship to the free school after 1989. The authors note two main developments: the return of the Czech school to democratic traditions and the rise of pedagogical populism present in European and global neoliberal pedagogical trends.
The key thesis is that the Czech school needs to find a balance again between the knowledge-performance and competence approaches to education.