About us
We are happy to introduce the PRIGO Group. Schools that are, with regards to current social needs, constantly expanding their offer of educational activities in sense of study programmes provided as well as places of education. The group includes kindergartens, elementary schools, high schools, colleges and universities that share common mission and vision.
We have been operating since 1993 in the Czech Republic, which is located in the very heart of the European Union.
Our educational strategy is based on the application of a unique, trademark-protected PriorityGO approach, a combination of individualisation of teaching, modern didactic methods and respect for the challenges of contemporary society. We see education as a lifelong philosophy and a continuous approach to life, not as a means to achieve other goals. PriorityGO is also a concept based on promoting an ethical approach to education, environmental sustainability and extracurricular or civic activities. Within this framework, PRIGO schools focus not only on theoretical education, but especially on the employability of graduates in their future lives.
In accordance with the IB mission, we want to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. We encourage our pupils and students to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.
Our Center for Working with Exceptionally Gifted Students (CEMNAS) supports talented students who have special educational needs and increased need for individualisation of teaching, as these needs do not always meet understanding at common public schools.
Being a part of the PRIGO Group also means never being alone at school. We apply our BuddyGO mentoring system across all schools. As a result, all buddies learn responsibility, respect and understanding. Older buddies help younger friends orient themselves in all school activities, engage them in extracurricular activities and help them find new friendships.
The PRIGO trademark means Priority, Innovations, Growths and Openness. This concept characterizes our philosophy which also includes strong support for internationalisation at all levels. We cooperate with our partner schools in USA, Great Britain, Germany, France and many others. For more on the international cooperation, see here.
Smart school
PRIGO is a school for life as it will be. We do our best to prepare our pupils and students to succeed in their future life, despite the fact that none of us has a clear idea as to what society and life will look like in a few decades. Our philosophy is based on the ten principles of the PriorityGO approach. We strive to educate creative personalities with a strong sense of adaptability and flexibility who will be able to prove themselves successful in life both at home and abroad. Therefore, we consider the development of critical thinking as the basis for preparation for future life. We emphasize modern didactic methods and the development of general competencies in teaching. We are aware of the fact that the school itself is no longer the sole or main source of information, and that its role is to some extent assumed by the online environment in the present time. That is why modern technologies are particularly important for us. We use mobile devices and the Internet environment not only as a part of teaching, but also in all other activities associated with attending the school. Our goal is for technologies to become a natural part of life, a tool for solving problems and simplifying work and life in general, not as a mean of consuming free time and replacing one’s personal social ties. Meanwhile, we respect the traditional values and our cultural-historical environment.
We are a smart school. Our priorities include connectivity, electronic communication, and transparency. An emphasis is placed on safe work with technologies. For the last five years, we have significantly changed our approach to information and communication technologies and their meaningful involvement in teaching and other activities. While the principle “Bring your own device” was implemented at first, whereby the personal devices of pupils and students were appropriately involved in teaching, we are moving forward in this school year. At the PRIGO Elementary School, iPads and Apple TVs are being used on suitable occasions in all classes.
But we take things even further! From September 2021, a new system of teaching individual subjects based on work with information and communication technologies will be implemented at PRIGO schools. At the PRIGO Medical and Science Grammar School, all new students enrolled in our eight-year grammar school programmes as well as those students who will start the IB Diploma Programme (International Baccalaureate) will receive iPads, and so will their teachers. In the upcoming years, all our other pupils, students, and teachers at PRIGO schools will be gradually equipped in like manner. All devices will always be new, it will be possible to use it for school, extracurricular and personal needs, and after successful completion of the study, it will be left to the personal ownership of the pupil or student for a symbolic or residual price.
PRIGO Strategic Board
The strategic and long-term development of the PRIGO schools, as well as its philosophical concept and evaluation of all processes, are managed by the PRIGO Strategic Board. This Board is a guarantor of compliance with the rules of the PriorityGO approach and other strategic goals of the PRIGO brand, which are PRiority, Innovations, Growth and Opennes. According to its Statute, the Strategic Board meets once a month to discusses medium-term and strategic issues. The conclusions are then implemented into the operational management of the PRIGO schools through an authorized member of the Board or by one of the permanent representatives of the schools. The guarantor of a certain area of the PriorityGO agenda is always a member of the Strategic Board or a permanent representative of schools, whereby an overlap to all schools of the PRIGO group is enabled, ensuring the cooperation of individual schools on one hand and the fulfillment of selected goals on the other.
Members of PRIGO Strategic Board
Presidency of the Board
prof. JUDr. Ing. Igor KOTLÁN, Ph.D. and Ph.D.
Chair
JUDr. Pavel PETR, Ph.D., LL.M.
1st Vice-Chair
doc. Mgr. Ing. Zuzana MACHOVÁ, Ph.D.
Deputy Chair
Members
Tereza ADAMČÍKOVÁ
Secretary
Ing. Linda FOLTÝNOVÁ, DiS.
Ing. Rudolf MACEK, Ph.D., MBA
PRIGO Programme Board
PRIGO Programme Board (PPB) is the main conceptual body that is the guarantor of the constitution of the PriorityGO rules. This council is an advisory body and acts by the Strategic Board of PRIGO. It has ten members. It usually meets twice a year and enables an independent evaluation of the principles on which PRIGO schools are built. According to the Regulations, the external members of the PRIGO Programme Board are appointed from among recognized figures of the decision-making sphere, primarily from the field of education or the social field. These are personalities whose life attitudes will guarantee the formulation of the PriorityGO principles in accordance with the challenges of the 21st century while respecting the traditional values on which our civilization circuit is built.
Executive management of the PriorityGO agenda is entrusted to the chairperson of the PRIGO Programme Board, Zdenka Maralíková (zdenka.maralikova@prigo.cz).
Members of PRIGO Programme Board
Internal Members of PRIGO Programme Board
Ing. Zdeňka MARALÍKOVÁ
Chair of PRIGO Programme Board
prof. JUDr. Ing. Igor KOTLÁN, Ph.D. et Ph.D.
Chair of PRIGO Strategic Board
JUDr. Pavel PETR, Ph.D., LL.M.
1st Vice-Chair of PRIGO Strategic Board
doc. Mgr. Ing. Zuzana MACHOVÁ, Ph.D.
Deputy Chair of PRIGO Strategic Board
Ing. Linda FOLTÝNOVÁ, DiS.
Member PRIGO Strategic Board
External Members of PRIGO Programme Board
P. ICDr. Libor BOTEK, Th.D.
Dean of the Diocese of Ostrava, Ostrava-Opavian bishopric
Mgr. et Mgr. Lukáš CURYLO
Deputy Governor, Moravian-Silesian Region
Mgr. Bc. Pavla GOLASOWSKÁ, DiS.
Member of the Chamber of Deputies, Parliament of the Czech Republic
prof. Mgr. Jaroslav MILLER, M.A., Ph.D.
Deputy Member of the Government at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports
Ing. Zbyněk PRAŽÁK, Ph.D.
Vice Mayor of the statutory city of Ostrava