More than 4.6 million students were heading back to school after the summer break. Starting the new 2023/2024 academic year were children in some 20,000 schools nationwide, among them thousands of Ukrainian children who have fled the war in their country, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Photo: PAP/Lech Muszyński
In a special message for the first day of classes, President Andrzej Duda and First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda said the new school year was bringing new opportunities and experiences for students, teachers and parents after more than two months of summer vacation.
Image: Polish President's Office
Polish President Andrzej Duda and First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda. Photo: Grzegorz Jakubowski/KPRP
"May this new school year be a time of solidarity and joy, a time of achieving goals, strengthening old friendships and creating new ones," the presidential couple said in their message.
"We wish for schools to be places of community building, and for the school community to be a team where everyone feels needed and serves others," they added.
Education is 'about lighting a fire': PM
Meanwhile, Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Monday he was wishing all children that their schooling process is "full of joy, openness to the world, creativity, passion and goodness, all those values and ideals that shape our lives, including the life of the nation."
Speaking at the opening of the new academic year at an elementary school in Rokiciny near the central city of Łódź, Morawiecki paraphrased the Irish poet William Butler Yeats by declaring that "education is not about filling a bucket, but about lighting a fire."
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki (centre) attends the opening of the new academic year at an elementary school in Rokiciny near the central city of Łódź on Monday. Photo: PAP/Marian Zubrzycki
Higher pay for teachers, more money for schools: education minister
Education Minister Przemysław Czarnek announced on Monday that the government would raise teachers' pay by "up to 20 percent" and pour more money into schools nationwide thanks to an increase in the educational subsidy.
Czarnek said: "We are increasing the educational subsidy, primarily for the purpose of raising salaries for teachers. There will be up to 20 percent pay raises for those earning the least ... We will also be channeling funds into education to improve the working conditions of teachers."
Czarnek on Monday attended the opening of the 2023/2024 school year at a special education centre in Węgrów east of Warsaw, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
Poland's Education Minister Przemysław Czarnek speaks at the opening of the 2023/2024 school year at a special education centre in Węgrów east of Warsaw. Photo: PAP/Leszek Szymański
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Source: IAR, PAP, TVP Info, prezydent.pl, polskieradio.pl