The Minister of Education Barbara Nowacka has announced there will be a review of remote-online learning with the private but state sponsored "Cloud School" Foundation (Szkoła w Chmurze). The results this year for remote learning have been very disappointing.
25% of final year students learning "in the Cloud" have failed their leaving certificate exams (matura) and their results in Polish were the same as Ukrainian students who are learning a foreign language as well as Polish literature.
The previous minister of education Przemysław Czarnek was also a critic of remote learning solutions.
There are several currents in Polish debates about education that favour remote learning. The ministry of education has noted that parents and pupils using remote learning are on the whole very satisfied.
However, schools have become embroiled in the culture war regarding the presence of religion and sex education in schools, the right warning about "gender ideology" and the left bemoaning the lack of ideologically neutral sex education. This background may explain enthusiasm for "home schooling".
The assumption that a role of schools is to inculcate ethical behaviour in children, obvious in many countries, is controversial in Poland where a popular opinion is that school provides intellectual development whereas parents and the home convey values. There is a "division of pedagogical labour" where school is supposed to be "ideologically neutral".
Like several countries, Poland went through a period of enforced experimentation with online learning with COVID distancing regulations. However, the influence of this period is at least ambiguous with several authorities and commentators noting an increase in psychological disorders because of the imposed remote learning.
However, the debate now seems set to focus on the academic effectiveness of online learning.
Sources: PAP, Rzeczpospolita, Przedszkola Chełm no. 5 website, www.euroschoolindia.com
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