25 January 2024
The new Minister of Education Barbara Nowacka's reduction of homework in Polish schools (including
the removal of mandatory graded homework for junior schools) has sparked a wider debate on state
education.
Minister of Education Barbara Nowacka. Photo: PAP/Paweł Supernak
The new Minister of Education Barbara Nowacka announced the government's plan to abolish
compulsory graded homework in junior schools in Poland (currently grades 1 to 8 from age 7 to 14).
Is the new government so different from the last in education policy?
Perhaps surprisingly, in the context of a political conflict between the current ruling coalition and the
current opposition that has evolved into a fully-fledged culture war and constitutional crisis, the
previous education minister, Przemysław Czarnek proposed a similar reduction in the workload for
Polish school children.
Czarnek proposed to reduce the scope of the curriculum to allow school children to engage in extra-
curricular activities developing emotional intelligence.
Is educational success and widespread dissatisfaction compatible?
Although Poland is regularly ranked high in terms of educational levels reached by pupils, these results
mask widespread dissatisfaction with the education system. Recent research from LiveCareer confirms
this, highlighting dissatisfaction with teaching methods (51% of respondents) and irrelevance of the
curriculum to the job market (47%).
So how does Poland rank so highly in international comparisons of education systems? (For example,
Poland placed 10th globally and 5th in Europe in the Pearson Ranking.)
Two answers: there is an extremely high emphasis on testing in Polish schools, making school a
pressured environment but perhaps making children good at passing exams; secondly and relatedly,
Polish families make very regular use of "prep" classes - private extra classes to help pass the frequent
tests (Polish: "korki").
For example, this article in a local government website referring to the one in four Polish families paying
for extra private classes for their children is titled "Schooling failure. One in four families uses private
tutorials".
So, it is not surprising that children and parents perceive poor teaching and an out-of-date curriculum as
essentially compensated by constant testing, extra private classes and a culture of monitoring children
by parents.
Conservative opinions out of touch
Conservative approaches in education, such as the opinions of then Minister of Education Roman
Giertych (2006-2007), have emphasized the need to read national literature, especially when this
literature is "patriotic". However, the emphasis on tests and homework (combined with easy internet
access) has led to the current scenario where students do not usually even read the set novels, but
simply practice exam questions and read or listen to summaries. In this way they are unlikely to
"imbibe" a sense of national pride, e.g., from Sienkiewicz.
Deep change or superficial reforms?
In her first press briefing as Minister of Education, Barbara Nowacka criticized the previous
government's record on education precisely for its failure to address deeper questions of education. The
PiS government, for example, reformed the structure of secondary education - turning 3 school stages
into 2 by eliminating "middle school". This change represented considerable logistic challenges for
school buildings and timetables for example, but did not touch core educational issues like recruitment
of teachers, salaries or curriculum.
Skepticism about new education plans
Yet the new minister has already faced similar criticisms herself. Her pre-Christmas announcement that
children are not to get "holiday homework" or that from April 2024 primary school children will not get
compulsory graded homework has been seen as exactly the kind of populist policy-making the previous
government was criticized for.
The far-right opposition party Konfederacja called a press conference where Krzysztof Bosak accused the
current administration of a lack of "homework" in presenting education plans, as evidenced by
contradictory statements by different government representatives.
Nowacka has, however, emphasized in her first statements as minister that some reforms will take "not
weeks or months but years".
