Policy Document

Act of 30 May 2014 amending the School Education Act and selected other acts

Year

2014

Country

Poland

Topic

Education

Subtopic

Compulsory Schooling

Main implications

The aims of this reform include:

- to provide all primary schools with free textbooks for pupils in grades 1-3, covering the Polish language, mathematics, science, and civil education; the reform will be implemented gradually, in the school year 2014/15 for pupils in 1st grade, and in the following years for the pupils in consecutive grades;

- to introduce a target grant to bodies running public primary and lower secondary schools for purchase of textbooks and educational materials used in foreign language education in the grades 1-3 of primary school, and textbooks and educational materials in grades 4-6 of primary school and in all the grades of lower secondary school. The reform will be implemented gradually, in the school year 2014/15 for pupils in the 1st grade of primary school and in the following years for pupils in consecutive grades of primary and lower secondary school;

- to oblige all public primary and lower secondary schools to provide pupils with free textbooks and educational materials; the reform will be implemented gradually, in the school year 2014/15 for pupils in the 1st grade of primary school and in the following years for the pupils in consecutive grades;

- to prohibit placing exercises, tasks, or commands in textbooks so that the books can be used in the following years, as well as to prohibit placing references to other educational materials offered by the publisher in textbooks, to oblige the teaching council to consult the parents' council before deciding on a set of textbooks and educational materials to be used in the given school;

- to lay down the rules for marketing practices used by the publishers in order to promote their textbooks in schools, as well as to prohibit them from offering textbooks which can be purchased only with additional educational materials against the client’s will. These changes are implemented to enhance the conditions in which the constitutional right to education is exercised and to ensure that the public authorities guarantee common and equal access to education for all citizens. Furthermore, the law introduces unified rules for the recruitment of children to general education (preschool, primary, and lower secondary) schools.

Benefits & Requirements

Is educational tracking implemented or modified by this document?

No

Read the Law

Original full text web source in native language

http://isap.sejm.gov.pl/DetailsServlet

Author

Agnieszka Chłoń-Domińczak
Institute of Statistics and Demography, Warsaw School of Economics

Data collected in the framework of the Population Europe Research Finder and Archive (PERFAR)

Cite as

SPLASH-db.eu (2014): Policy: "Act of 30 May 2014 amending the School Education Act and selected other acts" (Information provided by Agnieszka Chłoń-Domińczak). Available at: https://splash-db.eu [Date of access].