The Legal Foundations of the Function and Support of Polonia Education by the Polish Authorities

Abstract

One of the most important forms of Poles’ acitivity abroad has for ages been the establishment of their own educational institutions. Almost in all Polish centres schools were made to teach about Poland. Very often normal schools were established with a complete agenda of general tuition. If the Polish communities aborad could not afford a school, then at least religious instruction was organised in Polish, Polish language courses, or else extramural tuition to maintain traditions of the homeland.

At the moment the law of 7 September 1991 on the system of education (i.e. DzU of 2004, No 256, pos. 2572 with change.) provides conditions for the support of Polish education abroad by sending teachers to work abroad, dispatching necessary manuals and didactic aid, organising special courses at home and abroad for teachers who conduct Polish language teaching, history, geography, Polish culture, and other subjects teaught in Polish, organising summer holidays for Polish children and adolescents from abroad. The ministry of education is is going to open new areas in which to support education. Polonia education should cherish a special concern on the part of the Polish educational authorities, for as long as it exists it is possible to maintain the Polish spirit in Polonia’s centres and among Poles who temporarily sojourn abroad. We should think in positive terms about the above mentioned activities. It seems that their most positive manifestation is an attempt to coordinate and unify education. It is important to introduce a proper system of motivation for teachers to go abroad to work in Polonia centres.