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Poland Structure of the Education System
Poland's postcommunist education legislation left
intact the
public structures established by the 1961 education law.
In that
system, the first stage was kindergarten, attended by
children
between three and seven years of age. City kindergarten
schools
were open from seven to eleven hours per day and designed
their
programs to accommodate the schedules of working parents.
Schools
in rural areas were open from five to eight hours,
depending on
the season and on agricultural requirements. The level of
education and auxiliary services was generally much lower
in
rural schools, and kindergarten attendance there was
roughly half
that in the cities. Some primary schools also had
kindergarten
sections, whose graduates continued to the next level in
the same
institution. The cost of kindergarten education was shared
by the
government and parents. Under the communist system, the
cost of
kindergarten education had been paid wholly by the
parents. In
1992 the 23,900 kindergartens in operation included 11,000
separate kindergartens and 12,900 kindergarten sections.
Eight years of primary school were obligatory in both
the
communist and the postcommunist systems (see
table 6,
Appendix).
Children entered this phase at age seven and remained
until they
completed the program or until they turned seventeen.
Foreignlanguage instruction was widely available (see
table 7,
Appendix). Some special schools were available for
students
gifted in the arts or sports, and special courses were
designed
for physically or mentally handicapped students.
Poland's acute shortage of classroom space required
double
shifts and large classes (thirty to forty students) in
most
primary schools. Some schools provided after-school
programs for
students in grades one to three whose parents both worked;
older
students, however, were released at the end of the school
day,
regardless of their home situation. In 1992 some 5.3
million
children were in primary school; new enrollments dropped
2.9
percent from the previous year.
In 1991 over 95 percent of primary-school graduates
continued
to some form of secondary education. Admission to the
secondary
level was by examination and overall primary-school
records. In
general, the students with the highest primary achievement
went
into a college preparatory track, those with the lowest
into a
trade-school track. Of pupils completing primary school in
1991,
about 43 percent went to three-year trade schools
(specializing
in various trades, from hairdressing to agriculture), 25
percent
to four-year vocational lycea and to technical schools,
and 26
percent to college preparatory schools. The last category
grew by
3.2 percent between 1990 and 1991, while the other two
fell
slightly. Of the three categories, only the first provides
a
trade immediately upon graduation. Students in the other
two
categories require further education at a university or at
a twoyear postsecondary schools to prepare them for employment.
Some
college preparatory schools combine a variety of
nontechnical
subjects in their curricula; others specialize in
humanities,
mathematics and physical sciences, biology and chemistry,
sports,
or classical subjects. In 1987 these schools enrolled more
than
twice as many girls as boys; about 11 percent of
secondary-school
students received scholarships. Students passing final
exams in
the college preparatory program are permitted to take
university
entrance exams.
Most technical programs are five years in length. Such
programs are offered in economics, art, music, theater
production, and teacher training (a six-year track). Many
students live at secondary technical schools because some
districts have only one such school. The government and
parents
share board and room expenses; tuition is free. The Polish
Catholic Church also operates fourteen high schools, whose
curricula were state-mandated until 1989.
To enroll at the university level, students have to
pass
entrance exams. Institutions at this level include full
universities (of which Poland had twelve in 1990),
polytechnical
schools, academies, and specialized colleges. In 1988 the
largest
of these were Warsaw University (23,300 students), Marie
CurieSklodowska University in Lublin (12,900), Adam Mickewiecz
University at Poznan (12,100), the Warsaw Technical School
(12,000), and the Silesian University at Katowice
(11,400).
The polytechnical schools offer theoretical and applied
training in such fields as electronics, engineering,
computer
science, and construction. Academies specialize in
medicine, fine
arts, economics, agriculture, sports, or theology;
thirty-four
academies were in operation in 1990. In that year,
twenty-nine
specialized colleges were training students in pedagogy,
oceanography, and art. College enrollment increased each
year
between 1989 and 1992. In 1992 some 430,000 persons
attended
college, 330,000 as full-time students; initial enrollment
for
the 1991-92 school year was 17.7 percent higher than for
the
previous year.
As a rule, students pursue postgraduate degrees as
members of
an academic team working under a single professor.
Continued
progress through the academic ranks depends on regular
evaluation
of scholarly activity and publications, and failure to
meet
requirements means removal from the program. Polish
postgraduate
studies programs, which culminate in doctoral degrees,
suffer
from lack of material support, low salaries, and low
demand for
individuals with advanced degrees in the job market. In
the late
1980s, these factors made the dropout rate very high and
forced
cancellation of several programs. Between 1982 and 1992,
Poland
suffered a serious "brain drain" in higher education and
the
sciences as more than 15,000 scientists emigrated or
changed
their profession.
Data as of October 1992
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