IMPORTANT! Appeal of Poles surviving abroad on the defence of Polish education
date:21 May 2024 Editor: Editorial
Since the curriculum is to be deprived of Polish identity and patriotic elements, what is the MEN project, what argument will support the effort of learning students in free time, i.e. in the strategy of Polish Saturday schools outside Poland? – we read in the appeal of Poles surviving abroad on the defence of Polish Polish education.
At the address of the [email protected]
The signatures of the Polish organizations under the Appeal are inactive collected.
The letter was filed at the President's Chancellery, and the next signatures will be attached.
-0_icon.png){kind=icon}
Very dear Mr. President,
We invitation you to admit the changes in the programming basis of Polish schools abroad, as well as the schools in Poland which the Ministry of National Education is pushing for, for a crucial breach of the fundamental interests of the Republic of Poland and the effort to break the conventional bond between the Matrix and 20 million Polish schools, and we ask you to prevent these processes.
Our top concern is the government's policy regarding the non-traditional illegal submission of Polish education to non-Polish, external institutions and agendas within the European education area and the adaptation of the Polish education strategy to harmful anti-Polish EU projects.
It is simply a clear violation of many binding norms of the Constitution of the Republic, the sovereignty and safety of Poland, which is guarded by the Office, which the president holds.
From the position of Poles surviving abroad, the changes to the programme basis are now in question the very essence of learning in Polish schools almost 3 million Polish children of school age. Since the curriculum is to be deprived of Polish identity and patriotic elements, what is the MEN project, what will be the argument for the effort of learning students in free time, i.e. in the strategy of Polish Saturday schools outside Poland?
We note that the erstwhile effort to attack Polish education took place in 2014, during the erstwhile word of the current government team. She then met – like present – with the mass opposition of Polish parents, thanks to which schools were not liquidated. Unfortunately, the program reduced the teaching of Polish past and geography and completely removed mathematics, which reduced the quality of education of Polish children and youth abroad and the attractiveness of Polish schools.
Polish educational offer compared to another countries abroad is absolutely insufficient. The current anti-reform implemented by MEN will deepen this gap. According to our best cognition – abroad, even in the largest centres of Polonia, there are only Polish Saturday schools [the prideful exception is the school in Athens], there is not a single full-week Polish Immersian school, i.e. a school with a Polish lecture language next to the local lecture language, as well as not 1 Polish school offering authoritative C2 certificates. There are – and they are increasing systematically – schools promoting another cultures. For example, there are as many as 140 German abroad schools, and 1100 abroad schools offer German at a level that allows to get a formal German language certificate (DSD). Similarly, Anglo-Saxon, French, Italian, Spanish, judaic and Ukrainian cultures are promoted intensively.
These facts should prompt the Polish authorities to strengthen intensively, not weaken the Polish educational offer abroad. The Central Statistical Office forecasts that by 2050 Poland's population will decrease by over 4 million. It is so worth seeking to return to Poland as many as 20 million Poles, including Polish children of school age, and that as many of them decide to survey in Poland.
If Polish children surviving abroad lose cognition of Polish language and Polish cultural identity due to discouragement of programme changes and mediocre level of education, their return to Poland will be much little likely. Unfortunately, the current plans of the MEN are aimed at depriving the curriculum of teaching national, patriotic and identity traits, which constituted a unique character of Polish education and encouraged the cultivation of teaching in Polish schools, despite the considerable effort put into this education by children and parents.
Polish education policy should lead to an increase in the level of education of pupils – in the country and abroad – and to maintaining the sovereignty of Polish education, alternatively than to drastically reducing the level of teaching and adapting education to harmful, anti-Polish goals imposed from outside, as we are witnessing.
Given the above, we call on the president to supply peculiar protection for national education – in his homeland and abroad – and to take decisive steps in this direction.
With respect
Poles associated with Polish organisations – signatories
Coalition for the Salvation of the Polish School
Maria Szonert Binienda, president of the planet Association “Republic of Polonia”, USA
Adam Gajkowski, president of the Federation of Polish Organizations in fresh South Wales, Australia
Jolanta Kocon, president of the Association – Chorągiew Polonia Kamracka, Netherlands
and
Tadeusz Gieysztor, president of the Polish School Defence Committee, France
Andrzej Kempa, president of the “Federation of Poles in Austria – Federation promoting the culture and integration of Poles surviving in Austria”, Austria
Walter Wiesław Gołębiewski, president of the planet Council for Polonia Research, USA
Leszek Pawlik, president of the American Polish Coalition, USA
Krzysztof Jastrzembski, Secretary of the Polish Defence Committee, United Kingdom
