Polish parliament votes for controversial education overhaul

WARSAW, Poland – Poland’s lower house of parliament has approved a controversial reform that eliminates middle schools and returns to an earlier system, while adding “patriotic” education to the curriculum.

Under the law, written by the ruling conservative Law and Justice party, children will attend eight years of primary school followed by four years of high school or a five-year vocational school. The phasing out of middle schools will begin at the start of the next school year on Sept. 1. It is a reversal of a 1999 reform that introduced middle schools.

Opponents and many parents argue the overhaul was done too quickly and will eliminate thousands of jobs, and was restoring a communist-era system. They have been organizing protests, fearful that the reform is being used as a pretense for a deep curriculum change to push the ruling party’s nationalistic ideology onto students.

The law was passed by the Sejm, or lower house, late Wednesday, but still needs to go through the Senate, which could request some changes. It also needs approval from President Andrzej Duda, who usually backs the government’s projects.

The government says the current system is doing a poor job of educating students, preparing them only to take tests.

During the parliamentary debate, ruling party lawmaker Dariusz Piontkowski, a former teacher, said the new curriculum will reverse a slump in education and restore the teaching of patriotism.