Schools in some European countries (as they are to reflect changes in modern society) are currently expected to change the paradigm of they work: to change from transmission of “complete” knowledge to the development of their clients´ willingness to life-long learning. Furthermore, a lot of school systems in various European countries have been undergoing the process of decentralisation when the responsibility for the quality of education is being shifted from the central to the level of particular schools. These both are now true for the Czech Republic where schools have been gaining more and more autonomy thus becoming responsible for their work in many ways. In other words Czech schools first became legal entities, relatively economically and personally independent. Nowadays they are gaining pedagogical autonomy, too. The change of curriculum understanding is being introduced (it now focuses on the development of pupils´ key competences) - schools are entitled to develop (in accordance with given frameworks for particular school level which have been created to reflect European trends, the needs of Czech society etc.) their own curriculum and to act according it. Should its realisation be successful, it calls for the concept of school as a learning organisation as such. “New” autonomy applies to all Czech schools at ISCED 0-4 level but not all of them feel the need and ability for their autonomous existence, for a new way of accountability. This brings along several risks: danger of chaos, impatience, incapacity to deal with it etc. For the success of the change, for the sake of pupils (and teachers), there are some essential conditions and premises that needs to be established. Our paper introduces the description of current situation and tackles the question of successfulness of a reform (when it is seen as a top-down mainly). Based on the review of relevant and accessible literature, empirical data, on questionnaire survey from three regions of the country (dealing with the topic of school self-evaluation) complemented by discussions with 40 school heads, we will try to answer following questions: do the Czech schools want and are they willing to change? What is the relation of introduced change with the existing and expected concept of teachers´ work, teachers´ profession (if any).

This article will provide a view on the first experiences with implementation of changes that aim at supporting new concept of quality of school work, educational work in particular.