Education in Poland - the Necessity of a Reform and New Challenges

Abstract

The systemic transformation in Poland has revealed the range of inadequacy of the system and the quality of education to the requirements of the principles of market economy. The changing labor market needed a type of employees different from the earlier, socialist society. The principles of decentralization and demonopolization introduced at the beginning of the 1990s started changes in the system of education. At the same time they revealed an increase in Poles’ educational aspirations. Reformatory work that resulted in the 1999 reform of education were subjected to this. The reform is a continuous process. Its elements are gradually implemented, and are connected both with the structure and with the quality of education. The tasks of the reform also include making the children’s and youths’ educational chances equal as well as propagating the pro-family education of the society.

The aim of the article is discussing the state of Polish education in the 1990s and of the causes and results (up till now) of the reform of the educational system. It shows problems in the educational policies and indicates both the necessity of undertaking reformatory measures and new areas and challenges within education of the young (and not only) generation.