Thursday, June 14, 2012

BBC: Poland's Achievements in Education

The role of Martial Law in today's educational reforms

Education Minister Zbigniew Marciniak
Poland Scores Late Goals in Education
By Bill Hicks
BBC Knowledge Economy
June 12, 2012

The eyes of the football world have turned to Poland, as it plays co-host to Euro 2012.

But the country has been winning international approval for a different kind of league table success - as Poland has become one of the rising stars in education.

Among eastern European, former-Communist countries, Poland has been the biggest education success story - following modernising reforms launched at the end of the 1990s.

It has also been more successful than most countries at one of the holy grails for education reform, equality of opportunity.

Poland's schools are succeeding, more than many others, in narrowing the gap between the weak and the strong, the gifted and the challenged.

No other European country has climbed the international education tables quite so consistently as this nation, which emerged so recently from decades of totalitarian rule and economic hardship.

Read the entire article here.

Thank you to the blog reader who sent this in.

4 comments:

  1. The problem of my generation is that there are too many graduates with Master's in geography, history or Polish literature - and not enough plumbers or IT specialists.

    ReplyDelete
  2. DocHunter, the problem you have is that you see education as purely instrumental. It's like believing that applied mathematics doesn't depend on pure mathematics.

    A modern economy depends on far more than IT and the trades. If you bothered to reflect on the entire issue, you would see that.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Peter, I agree with the substance of your post, and I thank you for making that point.

    OTOH, I'm sure that DocHunter has reflected on the issue, and it is to our benefit to credit him with that.

    If he were not a thoughtful person, he would not have read the article! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sorry-but this is quite wrong,education in Poland is on a free fall, especially with regards to history….

    ReplyDelete

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