Art education system – post-primary education level

Art education in Poland provides artistically gifted children and young people with individualised learning opportunities in specific areas of fine arts. It forms a separate sector in relation to the general education system and is supervised by the minister responsible for culture and national heritage. The Department of Art Schools and Cultural Education of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the Centre of Art Education (Centrum Edukacji Artystycznej) carry out the tasks of the minister as the so-called administering body for some art schools and the supervisory body for all art schools. The legislation in force also allows local government units and other entities to administer art schools and institutions, but the State, represented by the minister responsible for culture and national heritage, is still the major entity in this school education sector.

In addition to higher education institutions of art studies, the art education system in Poland includes schools providing education at the primary and secondary (post-primary) levels. In general, the system includes the following public and non-public schools and institutions: 

• art schools providing art education only;

• art schools providing in parallel art education and general education (based on the same core curriculum and principles as in general schools);

• art institutions: art centres where learners can develop their artistic interests and aptitudes;

• residence halls: institutions providing care and education to art school pupils during the period when they attend school away from their place of residence.

The following types of art schools provide in parallel general education at the secondary level and art education:

• General 2^nd grade music schools (4 years): where pupils can obtain both a vocational diploma of Musician and a maturity certificate upon passing the maturity exam.

• Visual arts schools (5 years): which provide general education based on the same core curriculum as in general secondary schools, and where pupils can obtain a vocational diploma of Visual Artist and a maturity certificate.

• Ballet schools (9 years) where the eighth-grader exam (taken by pupils finishing the primary school) is conducted in Grade V, and Grades VI to IX correspond, in terms of the core curriculum, to the education cycle in a general secondary school. Thus, pupils can obtain a vocational diploma of Dancer and a maturity certificate.

There are also types of art schools which do not provide general education. Young people attending a secondary school can acquire in parallel knowledge and skills in art areas in the following types of schools:

• 1^st grade music schools: where secondary school pupils are enrolled on a shorter, 4-year, education cycle and cannot obtain vocational qualifications;

• 2^nd grade music schools: which provide 6- or 4-year programmes;

• schools of dance arts: which provide 9-year programmes;

• schools of circus arts: which provide 3-year programmes;

• post-secondary schools of music (3-year programmes) and visual arts (2-year programmes).

Secondary art schools train pupils for the following occupations: Musician, Visual artist, Dancer, Music theatre actor, and Circus actor/performer.

Art schools at the primary and secondary levels operate in accordance with two Acts of Parliament, the Law on School Education pf 14 December 2016 (ustawa z dnia 14 grudnia 2016 r. – Prawo oświatowe) and the Teachers’ Charter of 26 January 1982 (ustawa z dnia 26 stycznia 1982 r. - Karta Nauczyciela), as subsequently amended. The ministers responsible for culture and protection of national heritage and for school education regulations laying down detailed arrangements, which are based on the two Acts.

In the school year 2024/2025, 14,100 pupils (a decline by 4.1% compared to the school year 2023/2024) were trained for art occupations in 110 general art schools awarding vocational qualifications (Source: Polish Central Statistical Office, ‘Education in the 2024/2025 school year (preliminary data)’). 

Art education at the primary level is described in Chapter 4 ‘Single-structure primary and lower secondary education’, section ‘Art schools – primary education level’.