Students demand more English-speaking programmes on Czech Television

Prague, Oct 4 (CTK) - The Czech Education Ministry has met the proposal of the opponents of film dubbing and said it would ask public Czech Television (CT) to broadcast more English-speaking programmes on the CT:D channel aimed at child audience, the ministry announced Friday. The ministry made the promise after Minister Dalibor Stys's meeting with representatives of the Czech High School Students Union, which made the proposal as a step to help the language proficiency of Czechs, who, together with Spaniards, have the lowest percentage of adults who can speak English as a learned language.

Stys supported the plan preferring film subtitles to dubbing. "Of course, there are situations where dubbing is necessary or advantageous at least. This mainly applies to children aged up to six or eight years. Simply because they still cannot read that well. As for the higher age categories, it is better if they can hear the original language," Minister Stys said.

The students point out that people in the countries where film subtitles prevail, such as Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Holland, speak English the best in Europe.

Moreover, reading Czech subtitles would help Czech kids improve their mother tongue knowledge, the students said. Television stations' representatives, nevertheless, say most viewers still prefer dubbed programmes. Dual broadcasts could solve the problem, they say. "Dual broadcasts are a way to bring English in TV broadcasts and thereby attract young people, without limiting the elderly," Czech High Schools Students Union chairman Jan Papajanovsky said. Unlike in television, Czech subtitles prevail in the case of foreign films presented in Czech cinemas and at film festivals.