More than 14,500 high schoolers sit the state matura today - the first external exam where they choose between a foreign language, math or history. For many of them this is the first real threshold to what comes next: university, a job, leaving. One sheet of paper that's supposed to sum up four years of study in a few hours.

According to the State Examination Center, this year sees three types of matura for the first time - state, vocational and artistic. 12,184 candidates registered for the state matura, 2,276 for the vocational, and 127 for the artistic. The foreign language taken today can be English, French, German, Russian or Italian. The mandatory external exams in mother tongue and literature are on June 11 and 12.

The numbers are tidy, the system works, the exams are held on time - and that's good. But behind every matura sits a bigger question the statistics stay silent on: how many of these 14,500 young people will build their lives here? The matura is a ticket to the future, but for more and more generations that future happens outside the country's borders.

This isn't a knock on the students - quite the opposite. It's a question for all of us. Every year the education system turns out thousands of graduates, sends them into the world prepared and ambitious, and then notes with surprise that many don't come back. Today they sit over their tests and don't think about it. Good luck to all of them - and here's hoping that one day there'll be a reason to stay too, not only to leave.