Poland: Launch of pre-consultations for the revision of core curriculum
The Polish Ministry of National Education is planning to revise the core curriculum in two stages:
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Stage 1: Initial reduction of the compulsory teaching content, while leaving the current teaching hours in place. This change, to be introduced as of 1 September 2024, will enable teachers and pupils to implement the content in more depth and with lower workload, resulting in a more effective education process.
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Stage 2: A comprehensive curriculum reform, to be implemented in 2026/2027 in primary schools, and in 2028/2029 – in secondary schools.
In order to make the process as open as possible the Ministry initiated the stage 1 via launching an open pre-consultation, accompanied by video-consultations with teachers and school heads.
The changes planned for stage 1 include the following levels and subjects:
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Primary school (grades IV-VIII) - Polish, modern foreign language, Latin, national or ethnic minority language, regional language - Kashubian, history, social studies, mathematics, biology, geography, chemistry, physics, computer studies.
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General secondary school, technical secondary school - Polish, modern foreign language, Latin language, language of the national or ethnic minority, regional language - Kashubian, history, social studies, history and the present, mathematics, biology, geography, chemistry, physics, computer science, philosophy, Latin and ancient culture, history of music, history of art.
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Sectoral vocational secondary school - Polish, modern foreign language, national or ethnic minority language, regional language - Kashubian, history, mathematics, biology, geography, chemistry, physics, computer science.
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Sectoral vocational secondary school - Polish, modern foreign language, national or ethnic minority language, regional language - Kashubian, mathematics, computer science.
During the open pre-consultation, anyone interested could, using a special form, submit their comments to the Ministry. The documents offered for consultation contained all the requirements set out in the 2017 and 2018 core curriculum, where the proposed changes had been marked.
Additionally, consultations in the form of online meetings made it possible to ask questions to the experts preparing the changes, and make comments. The first meeting concerned changes to the proposed requirements for Polish language, history and civics.
Following analysis of the comments received, draft regulations of the Minister of National Education on the core curriculum of general education for the above types of schools will be prepared. In April the drafts will go to public consultations and inter-ministerial arrangements, and in June they will be signed by the Minister.
Due to the comprehensive curriculum reform planned in the future (Stage 2), the currently proposed changes include only reducing the scope of the requirements set out in the existing core curriculum, so that from 1 September 2024 the new streamlined curriculum can be offered to all pupils from grade IV of primary school up to secondary schools of all types. This does not result in the need to exchange existing school textbooks.
Source: Eurydice Unit Poland
