Abstract:

For every individual, there are three periods in one’s life related to work activity: preparation for active life and work (educational period), active work activity, and retirement age. All these periods are important for the life of individuals because they have a major influence on the future quality of this individual’s life. The education of pupils begins at primary school. Absolvents of the primary school are sufficiently prepared for future studies at secondary school. The choice of secondary school is influenced by the social environment in which the pupil grows up, by the pupil’s character traits, by the pupil’s needs, belief, opinions, life goals, and value belief. All the factors mentioned above affect the primary school pupil’s choice of future profession and his/her relationship to work activities.
Nowadays the disinterest of pupils in studies at secondary vocational schools is a global issue. In Slovakia, the interest of primary school absolvents in secondary vocational schools is also decreasing, which negatively affects the number of students at technically-oriented secondary schools. From the analysis of result from statistical collection, which we acquired on webpage Školské výpočtové strediská [school computer center] (CVTI2019b; CVTI2020a) for all years published the number of accepted pupils and the number of graduates continues to decrease.
Research made in Slovak republic aimed to discover the reason for pupils’ disinterest in a study at secondary vocational school, showed a major impact of social factor (family, friends, classmates) in pupil’s decision making.
Researchers of three universities in Slovakia and one Czech university have decided to perform research of pupils’ motivational factors in the process of choosing the secondary school on a group of 8th and 9th-grade pupils. The goal of this research was to uncover the most important factors affecting the choice of secondary school by absolvents of primary school. The research sample consisted of 2776 8th and 9th-grade primary school pupils. The main research tool was a questionnaire that consisted of 23 items. The acquired data were statistically evaluated. In the paper, we present the results of empiric research aimed at the most common reasons behind the choice of secondary school by pupils finishing primary school and we express conclusions for pedagogical practice.

Keywords:

Education, motivation, technical education, pupil´s interest, primary school.