To Fix Its Lagging Education, The U.S. Should Take A Close Look At Poland's Succesful Formula

09 lutego, 2015

Poland remains a success story not only with its economy, but even more so, with its educational system, which in the past decade has moved sharply forward from the rear of international pack, and beats now the U.S. on most performance measures. Poland's success has not only been noticed by international educational organizations, but also by American newspapers, i.e. by USA Today, which took a close look last August at Polish education's reform. Apparently, Poland has now the fourth-highest number of higher education students in Europe, only behind the U.K., Germany and France. In reading, Poland is ahead of the U.K., Germany or France, and far ahead of the U.S.. Poland surpassed the U.S. even in math, by placing 19th on a survey by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) whereas the U.S. was ranked at 27th place, well below average.

Pursuant to last year's Pearson's Global Education Index, the U.S. is ranked in 14th place globally in cognitive skills and educational attainment, whereas Poland, which surpassed the U.S., leaped to 10th place in the world. Following are the top 10 countries in the Pearson's ranking: South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Finland, United Kingdom, Canada, Netherlands, Ireland and Poland (Germany, Denmark and Russia are ahead of the U.S., too).

Poland's curriculum is mostly based on the effects of the education - not just what the students know but what they can do, and how they can use their knowledge practically. Poland started the revamping of its educational system only in 1998, approximately 10 years after the fall of communism, when the country already was flying in the aftermath of market reforms, and deregulation and privatization made Poland's economy one of Europe's fastest growing. But Poland's schools in that period of revamping of its economy still continued to rely on old course materials, with education putting emphasis on producing technicians and vocational workers for heavy industries. Miroslaw Handke, then Minister of Education, got a green light, and with remarkable speed, in a year, academia in Poland was unrecognizable. Poland switched its educational system to a new form of general education that resisted specialization. A year later, in 2000, Poland began leap to the international league tables. By 2012, the last time OECD conducted its survey, Poland was one of the best teaching countries in the world. In fact, its the only one to have gone from below average in the charts, to above average, with its GDP ranking only 46th globally. On key indicators - math, science and reading, it came from behind to rank well ahead of the United States.

How did Poland manage to do so? Well, under the revamped system, primary school lasts six years, followed by three years of a new comprehensive lower secondary school, before a decision is made on whether to send a student to vocational training. Knowledge - reading, writing, arithmetic - is valued above technical skill. Foreign language, especially English - became a key component. In 2000 only 1 percent of kids received four hours or more of language classes. By 2006 that figure jumped to 76 percent.

Notwithstanding the success in education, Poland spends only around $5,000 per student annually from primary to tertiary education, but outperforms the United States, which spends three times more than Poland on education of one student. Of course, a part of the educational success is based in the socialist past, when Poland's education system went through its first wide and deep modernization.

The economy in Poland continues to be strong. In fact, Poland was the only European country which did not succumb to 2009 recession (in fact, it registered, as the only country in Europe, a 1.6% growth in 2009). January, 2015 indicators show a booming economy, with over 8 percent growth. However, Poland still remains a low payer for teachers, approximately $650 per month, compared with the national average of all workers of $945 per month (of course, one has to remember that education, healthcare and the rest of social safety net are still provided in Poland free of charge). Obviously, Poland will have to upgrade the salaries of their teachers rather sooner than later. There are also some unexpected sides to the educational success of Poland, i.e. Poland's rapid development of foreign language training has a negative side effect. Many Poles are leaving home to gain skills abroad. While it generally helps the technology sector, if they return, many of them never do, preferring to stay in the U.K., Norway, Germany, Netherlands, France or Austria, where they can count on higher wages. But despite the negative effect of losing so many of creative and energetic young people to economies of Western Europe, Poland's educational system is an example to the whole world, and a stellar proof that its not just the money that makes good students.

Janusz Andrzejewski
a New York City based attorney,
writes on legal and other important community topics