Education in the Polish People's Republic
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Education in the
Background
When the
Though the plan was formulated in 1945, it was not until 1947 that it would be largely put into practice. The acquisition of new territory and the destruction wreaked on the country during the war meant that schools had to be built or rebuilt, and new teachers had to be trained.
The Nazi and Soviet massacre of the prewar Polish intelligentsia, and the emigration of many other intellectuals and skilled people, had left Poland severely educationally lacking. As a result, the Communist program of free and compulsory school education for all, and the establishment of new free universities, received much support. Universities from the lost eastern territories were evacuated to the new western territories: from
The Communists thus took the opportunity to create a new Polish educated class, taught in an educational system which they controlled; history as well as other sciences had to follow
Primary and secondary education
Schools were standardized into seven-year primary schools and four-year secondary schools. A large scale campaign to build hundreds of new secondary schools in rural villages, inner city areas, and on the outskirts of towns was also initiated. It was hoped that this would eliminate the educational privilege richer Poles enjoyed and make the system fairer for everyone.
By the 1950s, rapid urbanization and the associated internal migration meant that fewer children were enrolling in rural schools. The 1950s also marked a massive surge in the number of teachers. In the 1948-1949 school year, there were 79,319 teachers, but by 1962-1963 there were 156,193. Due largely to new universities being constructed around the country, these teachers were the most highly trained the Poles had ever experienced.
In order to be able to admit all children to the seven-year schools outlined in 1948, a campaign to expand the school network was undertaken. So many new schools were built (4,834 new classrooms in 1956 alone) that the government could, and indeed did, pass a law mandating the maximum distance between a child's home and their school. For students in grades one to four a school had to be within 3 kilometers of their home, and for students in grades five to seven, within 4 kilometers of their home.
In 1956, a detailed study by the Central Statistical Office declared that every single mentally and physically healthy Polish child received an education. Special schools were set up for
On July 15 1961, the Sejm (Polish parliament) passed an act on the development of the educational system. It introduced two years of compulsory agricultural or vocational training, officially secularized all schools and raised the minimum age of graduation from 14 to 15. This reform was gradually implemented from 1962 to 1966.
Vocational education
In the 1920s and 1930s, vocational education did exist on a relatively adequate scale, and a fairly large number of students (110,000 in 1937-1938) attended vocational institutions. However, the standard of education was very low. Many did not have
As rapid industrialization was one of the key communist priorities, so too were the vocational schools improved. The Ministries of Education and Industry began to set up new schools. By 1946-1947, there were 60,000 more students enrolled in vocational institutes than in 1937-1938. Standardized textbooks were published on a large scale, the required number of hours of theory was raised to 18, and a number of new subjects based on more modern technological skills were introduced.
In 1949, the Central Agency for Vocational Training was set up to sculpt the curriculum so that the demands of Poland's
The number of students in vocational institutions grew rapidly from the 1930s to the 1960s, with 207,529 students in 1937/1938 and 1,371,400 in 1963/1964.
University
As almost all of
Following the war, the universities were rebuilt and restructured according to a communist model, i.e. medical, agricultural, economical, engineering and sport faculties became colleges. Theological faculties were removed from state universities, two theological colleges were created in Warsaw. The new government, as part of a plan to strengthen the Polish economy, created many new
Poland had a considerable number of day students in its universities, an estimated 57.2 students per 10,000 people in 1964, compared to 14.4 in 1938. This put it at fifth place in the Eastern Bloc (behind the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia) and in relation to the capitalist world, behind the United States, Canada, Japan and Australia.
After the war people coming from workers' or farmers' families were preferred. The system was cancelled around 1956. Later a system similar to the affirmative action was implemented, where people coming from workers' or farmers' families (pochodzenie robotniczo-chłopskie) were given preferential treatment in the university admission, usually in the form of extra points in the recruitment process given for the social class (punkty za pochodzenie). This was partially motivated by the Communists seeing the traditional intelligentsia as hostile, and trying to build a new educated class more friendly towards them. All kinds of affirmative action were abolished after the fall of communism. After 1968 student protests, students had to apply for political certificates, as the result many of them lost their scholarships.
See also
References
- Balicki, Stanisław W. et al. Twenty Years of the Polish People's Republic. Warszawa Państwowe Wydawnictwo Ekonomiczne, 1964.