“They Would Imprison Us Both!” – The Matura Exam at Secondary Technical Schools During the Normalisation Period in Socialist Czechoslovakia (1969–1989)

Abstract

ABSTRACT The study focuses on matura exams conducted at secondary technical schools in Czechoslovakia during the so-called normalisation period (1969–1989). It describes their form, organisation and course. At the same time, however, it also presents the practice (including the reasons for this practice) that the communist regime in Czechoslovakia used to influence the exams. The text is based on the recollections of eyewitnesses – secondary technical school teachers, obtained through the oral history method within the historiographical approach of the history of everyday life, as well as on the study of historical archival sources, period legislation and periodicals. In addition to the actual form, organisation and course of the matura exam at secondary technical schools, the study shows how teachers and students coped with the challenges posed by the communist regime in relation to the exams.