General information

Care for children aged up to 3 years

Pursuant to the national legislation on childcare, external supervision of crèches and kids’ clubs (and day-care providers proving individual care; see Chapter 4), including quality monitoring of childcare, is the responsibility of the mayor of a commune, town or city (the executive body of the commune, the lowest-level local government unit). It is based on a supervision plan adopted by the commune council (the legislative and supervisory body of the commune). Supervision covers all activities of a crèche or kids’ club, which include nursing and educational care, and care and educational activities. Detailed standards for childcare are adopted by the commune authorities. So-called supervision activities, including inspections, are carried out by staff authorised by the mayor.

The commune authorities set out specific responsibilities of staff who conduct supervision activities. However, the national legislation authorises such staff to:

• visit the premisses on the days and during the hours when a crèche or kids’ club conducts or should conduct its activities;
• request oral or written clarifications, documents or information recorded on other data carriers, and any other data related to the scope of supervision;
• access records for staff employed in a crèche or kids’ club.

The legislation does not identify staff responsible for internal supervision or monitoring of the quality of childcare in a crèche and kids’ club. Since the director of a crèche or the head of a kids’ club takes overall responsibility for the activities of the institution, supervision functions are, in practice, assigned to him / her; see information about the management staff in crèches and kids’ clubs above. Specific supervision responsibilities are set out in the statutes of an institution, adopted by the entity administering the institution, and organisational regulations, adopted by the director / head of the institution or other internal regulations.

For information about quality assurance, see Chapter 11.1 ‘Quality assurance in early childhood and school education’.

Preschool education and school education

Quality of education in schools (and nursery schools and other educational institutions) is monitored as part of so-called pedagogical supervision, which covers two types of measures:

• inspections conducted in schools (and nursery schools and other institutions) (for details about inspections, see Chapter 11.1, Quality Assurance in Early Childhood and School Education); and
• support for schools, which aims at performance improvement (activities such as dissemination of information; planning of development activities; organisation of training activities and staff meetings).

There are three levels of pedagogical supervision:

• national level: Ministers of Education and Science, of Culture and National Heritage (for art schools), Agriculture and Rural Development (for agricultural schools), Climate and Environment (for forestry schools) and Justice (for youth detention centres, hostels for underage young people, diagnosis and consultation centres, and schools within these institutions);
• regional level: Heads of the Regional Education Authorities (REAs) (kurator oświaty);
• institutional level: the head of a school (in the case of a teaching head; otherwise related duties are taken over by a teacher holding a management position).

At the national and regional levels, the government bodies supervised by the above-mentioned ministers and the REAs establish the following positions for external pedagogical supervision that require teaching qualifications as specified in the legislation:

• in the ministries:
  • inspectors (wizytator), senior inspectors (starszy wizytator) and chief inspectors (główny wizytator);
• in the REAs:
  • heads (kurator oświaty) and deputy heads (wicekurator) of the REAs coordinating organisational units responsible for pedagogical supervision;
  • heads of organisational units responsible for pedagogical supervision;
  • inspectors and senior inspectors.
• in specialised units responsible for pedagogical supervision which may be established for schools supervised by ministers other than the Minister of Education and Science:
  • heads of units and other staff holding management positions and carrying out pedagogical supervision tasks;
  • inspectors, senior inspectors and chief inspectors.

Inspections in schools are carried out by inspectors, senior inspectors and chief inspectors (hereafter jointly referred to as inspectors). See Qualification requirements, and Conditions of Service for Inspectors below.

At the institutional level, in public schools, internal pedagogical supervision is the responsibility of the school head (or a teacher holding a management position if the head is not a teacher) who works together with other teachers holding management positions. The national regulations on internal pedagogical supervision do not apply to non-public schools which may put in place different arrangements.

General information about the responsibilities of the head (or a teacher who holds a management position and is in charge of pedagogical supervision) in the public sector is provided in the section ‘Responsibilities and powers of school head’ above. For details about internal supervision, including internal inspections and teacher performance appraisal conducted by the school head (or a teacher holding a management position), see Chapter 11.1 ‘Quality Assurance in Early Childhood and  School Education’.

Requirements for appointment

Care for children aged up to 3 years

The national legislation does not specify qualification requirements for staff directly involved in supervision of, or external quality monitoring of childcare in, crèches and kids’ clubs. Such staff are appointed by the mayor of a town, city or commune who also sets qualification requirements for them.

The national legislation does not identify staff responsible for internal supervision in a crèche and kids’ club. In practice, the responsibility for the quality of childcare lies with the director of a crèche or the head of kids’ club. See Requirements for appointment in Chapter 10.1. “Management staff in early childhood and school education”. 

Preschool education and school education

Requirements for the appointment of school head, who is responsible for internal monitoring of the quality of education, are discussed in Chapter 10.1 ‘Management staff for early childhood and school education: Requirements for appointment’.

Qualification requirements for inspectors

Pursuant to the legislation, inspector positions in ministries, other government agencies and the Regional Education Authorities, which are responsible for external monitoring of the quality of education, may be taken by:

• appointed or chartered teachers (one of the professional promotion grades for school teachers) who hold a Master's (magister or equivalent) degree (awarded upon completion of a second-cycle or long-cycle programme) and:
  • have completed in-service training courses in administration or management; or
  • have at least 2 years of work experience in a management position in a school (or a nursery school or another educational institution) or an initial teacher training institution (the type of ins
  • have at least 2 years of work experience in a position related to the organisation of work in educational institutions either in a body exercising pedagogical supervision over schools (or nursery schools or other educational institutions) or in a body administering schools (or nursery schools or other educational institutions);
• academic teachers who have at least 5 years of work experience in a higher education institution and have completed in-service training courses in administration or management.

The requirements discussed above are applicable to all inspectors, regardless of the level of the school education system where they conduct inspections.

Conditions of service

Care for children aged up to 3 years

Staff directly involved in external monitoring of the quality of childcare in crèches and kids’ clubs are employed by the mayor of the commune, city or town. Conditions of service for such staff are determined in accordance with the generally applicable labour law and state pension regulations, legislation on local government and regulations adopted by the commune authorities.

For information on the conditions of service of the director of a crèche and the head of a kids’ club, who are responsible for internal monitoring of the quality of childcare, see Chapter 10.1.1 ‘Management staff in early childhood and school education: Conditions of service’.

Preschool education and school education

For the conditions of service of a school head, who is responsible for internal monitoring of the quality of childcare, see Chapter 10.1.2 ‘Management staff in early childhood and school education: Conditions of service’.

Conditions of service for inspectors

The conditions of service for inspectors, who are responsible for external monitoring of the quality of education, are governed by both the legislation on civil service and the legislation on the teaching profession. This is because inspectors – like other staff in government administration bodies, including the Regional Education Authorities, which are a government administration unit at the regional level – have the status of civil servants as well as the status of teachers.

Job vacancies for inspectors are published internally for staff in government administration bodies or the REAs in the case of internal recruitment or in the Public Information Bulletin for external recruitment. The recruitment process is conducted by a team which analyses documents submitted by candidates and holds interviews or a test. The team selects one best candidate and several reserve candidates according to the extent to which they fulfil the criteria set. The final decision to employ an inspector is taken by an authorised official in the case of recruitment in a government administration body or the Head of the REA (kurator oświaty) in the case of the regional education authorities.

Pursuant to the legislation on civil service, the employment relationship with an inspector (as any other civil servant) may be terminated or may cease in case he / she has received two successive negative assessments of performance, acted in breach of the law, lost good repute or lost the rights to hold the position, or is no longer able to hold the position for health-related reasons.

Inspectors are entitled to a salary and other benefits for civil servants. The salary comprises the basic pay, determined according to the position held, an allowance for the employment period in civil service and, depending on the mode of employment, an allowance for the professional grade held. Inspectors are also eligible to receive a number of benefits available to teachers. These include, for example, opportunities for the promotion to a higher grade in the professional promotion system for teachers, special retirement benefits (see Chapter 9.2, Conditions of Service for Teachers Working in Early Childhood and School Education) and the right to tied accommodation.

Participation in continuing professional development (CPD) activities is taken into account in the performance appraisal of inspectors. Inspectors can take part in various types of CPD activities for school education staff which are organised by in-service teacher training institutions, continuing education institutions, higher education institutions and other educational and training institutions.