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Post by Bonobo on Oct 1, 2008 19:31:47 GMT 1
Are Polish schools ready for 6-year olds?
Polish Radio
19.09.2008
Despite protests from parents and experts, Education Ministry goes ahead with the plan to extend compulsory institutionalized schooling onto six year olds. Are Polish schools ready for the reform? Is it going to make life better for children and parents?
Joanna Najfeld reports
The idea to impose compulsory schooling on 6 year old came quite unexpectedly. Education Minister Katarzyna Hall announced the idea in March. 6-year olds are to go to school, and in the future, kindergarten is to be made obligatory for 5-year olds.
'According to our plan, in three years, all Polish children will start institutionalized education at six years old, preceded by at least one year of kindergarten education,' said Education Minister Katarzyna Hall.
So far the law obliged parents to send kids to school at 7. They could choose institutionalized schooling for their kids earlier at no financial cost.
That's why many parents were surprised when the ministry suddenly announced compulsory education for 6 year olds, without proper public debate on the issue. This is against parents' rights and the good of the children, says Pawe³ Tobo³a-Pertkiewicz, a parents' rights activist: 'It seems that schoolkids are a kind of guinea-pigs of consecutive ministers who try their ideas and then parents have to bear fruits of these experiments. There was no debate on this particular proposition. The ministry just announced it, but parents simply don't agree.'
Pawe³ Tobo³a-Pertkiewicz collected several thousand petitions against the reform, citing parent's constitutional rights. He didn't even advertise his campaign. If he did, maybe the support would grow, because as one poll in the "Rzeczpospolita" daily showed, 60% of parents don't want 6 year olds forced into the school system, which is in an awful state and needs major improvements for children who are already there.
Teachers are underpaid, facilities run down, classes too crowdy and curricula not suited to the real educational needs of the children.
No ministry is able to change that any time soon. This system is completely unprepared to cater for a lot of little children, says Tomasz Elbanowski, who started a Web-based campaign ratujmaluchy. pl (meaning "save the small ones") protesting the ministry's project.
Education of small children is a fragile issue, it must not be approached carelessly, says Elbanowski: 'We protest because Polish schools are in majority not prepared to receive such small children. Just to mention toilets and all sanitary facilities not adopted to the hight of a 6-year old. Also, because of the time pressure, new textbooks might not appear on time and the ministry may not manage to educate new teachers. The cost of new infrastructure also is higher than the ministry is prepared to pay. The sum of 150 billion PLN mentioned by the ministry is far too little. Children are not guinea- pigs to make experiments on them, and these first steps at the beginning of education are very important for their further education.'
Twenty one thousand people signed the protest at ratujmaluchy. pl. This campaign does not deny the idea of schooling at an early age, but only points out that the system is not prepared and it would be much better to develop a network of well-organized kindergartens suited to the needs of small children. Concerned parents complain they have had no feedback from the ministry, or anyone else from the government.
'The ministry doesn't want to talk with parents if they are against the reform. So now we turned to MPs to help with our protest. We wrote a letter to all MPs. We hope this will help, because the ministry doesn't want to hear any critique,' said Tomasz Elbanowski.
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Post by jeanne on Oct 3, 2008 2:13:25 GMT 1
Are Polish schools ready for 6-year olds?
Polish Radio
19.09.2008
Despite protests from parents and experts, Education Ministry goes ahead with the plan to extend compulsory institutionalized schooling onto six year olds. Are Polish schools ready for the reform? Is it going to make life better for children and parents?
Joanna Najfeld reports
The idea to impose compulsory schooling on 6 year old came quite unexpectedly. Education Minister Katarzyna Hall announced the idea in March. 6-year olds are to go to school, and in the future, kindergarten is to be made obligatory for 5-year olds.
'According to our plan, in three years, all Polish children will start institutionalized education at six years old, preceded by at least one year of kindergarten education,' said Education Minister Katarzyna Hall.
So far the law obliged parents to send kids to school at 7. They could choose institutionalized schooling for their kids earlier at no financial cost.
That's why many parents were surprised when the ministry suddenly announced compulsory education for 6 year olds, without proper public debate on the issue. This is against parents' rights and the good of the children, says Pawe³ Tobo³a-Pertkiewicz, a parents' rights activist: 'It seems that schoolkids are a kind of guinea-pigs of consecutive ministers who try their ideas and then parents have to bear fruits of these experiments. There was no debate on this particular proposition. The ministry just announced it, but parents simply don't agree.'
Pawe³ Tobo³a-Pertkiewicz collected several thousand petitions against the reform, citing parent's constitutional rights. He didn't even advertise his campaign. If he did, maybe the support would grow, because as one poll in the "Rzeczpospolita" daily showed, 60% of parents don't want 6 year olds forced into the school system, which is in an awful state and needs major improvements for children who are already there.
Teachers are underpaid, facilities run down, classes too crowdy and curricula not suited to the real educational needs of the children.
No ministry is able to change that any time soon. This system is completely unprepared to cater for a lot of little children, says Tomasz Elbanowski, who started a Web-based campaign ratujmaluchy. pl (meaning "save the small ones") protesting the ministry's project.
Education of small children is a fragile issue, it must not be approached carelessly, says Elbanowski: 'We protest because Polish schools are in majority not prepared to receive such small children. Just to mention toilets and all sanitary facilities not adopted to the hight of a 6-year old. Also, because of the time pressure, new textbooks might not appear on time and the ministry may not manage to educate new teachers. The cost of new infrastructure also is higher than the ministry is prepared to pay. The sum of 150 billion PLN mentioned by the ministry is far too little. Children are not guinea- pigs to make experiments on them, and these first steps at the beginning of education are very important for their further education.'
Twenty one thousand people signed the protest at ratujmaluchy. pl. This campaign does not deny the idea of schooling at an early age, but only points out that the system is not prepared and it would be much better to develop a network of well-organized kindergartens suited to the needs of small children. Concerned parents complain they have had no feedback from the ministry, or anyone else from the government.
'The ministry doesn't want to talk with parents if they are against the reform. So now we turned to MPs to help with our protest. We wrote a letter to all MPs. We hope this will help, because the ministry doesn't want to hear any critique,' said Tomasz Elbanowski.
Read more: polandsite.proboards.com/thread/3588/6-year-olds-school?page=1#ixzz3vvLssBtx
I'm with the parents on this one. I think the movement to make schooling earlier and earlier for children is detrimental. Children's jobs at an early age is play and discovery of the world around them. I believe being in a restrictive school setting interferes with this. Additionally, children in a school setting at an early age are instructed to share, share, share ( all taught with good intentions), but I believe children need to learn to know the importance of calling something their own and taking care of that personal property in order to eventually respect the property of others. Also, children need to be at a certain point of development in order to learn to read, and to try to force them too early can lead to frustration and failure on the part of many. Allowing children to delay starting formal schooling is truly giving them the gift of time. What is the rush? |
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Post by Bonobo on Oct 3, 2008 11:05:53 GMT 1
I'm with the parents on this one. I think the movement to make schooling earlier and earlier for children is detrimental. Children's jobs at an early age is play and discovery of the world around them. I believe being in a restrictive school setting interferes with this. Additionally, children in a school setting at an early age are instructed to share, share, share ( all taught with good intentions), but I believe children need to learn to know the importance of calling something their own and taking care of that personal property in order to eventually respect the property of others. Also, children need to be at a certain point of development in order to learn to read, and to try to force them too early can lead to frustration and failure on the part of many. Allowing children to delay starting formal schooling is truly giving them the gift of time. What is the rush? I am also against. Not because I think early schooling is detrimental. No. But I know Polish conditions and realise that first there is an idea, next its implementation and only finally some preparations take place. That is the way Poles organize a lot of things. So, it is quite true that most schools are unprepared to accomodate those kids. |
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Post by jeanne on Oct 3, 2008 11:36:02 GMT 1
I am also against. Not because I think early schooling is detrimental. No. I think that if kindergartens do what they should, that is prepare the children for formal schooling, that is okay. However, what I have seen here (US) is that now they are pushing the teaching of reading younger and younger, so now kindergarten resembles what first grade used to look like... The latest trend now is for all day kindergarten whereas it used to be only a half-day for these young children. (Children here start kindergarten at age 5 generally). I just think Poland should move cautiously when making the change. |
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gigi
Kindergarten kid
Posts: 1,470
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Post by gigi on Oct 3, 2008 13:59:50 GMT 1
The latest trend now is for all day kindergarten whereas it used to be only a half-day for these young children. (Children here start kindergarten at age 5 generally). I think that part of the reason for the full day kindergarten program may be to help those families who are either headed by a single parent working full time, or a family with two parents working full time. Most kids around here start preschool at 3 (usually 2 hours/day for 2-3 days/week), but many children attend some kind of child care program/preschool combination, sometimes from 6am-6pm. That would have been the case for our family, but I just couldn't do it (and we were fortunate enough to have the financial means to make that choice). The full day kindergarten classes in this area are more of a preschool/kindergarten combination. There is some focus on skills such as emergent reading, but there is still a lot of learning through play. Our school doesn't offer a full day option, so some of the children attend a child care program at the school before and after their scheduled class. It is actually a great program, with a good teacher:student ratio and a fun curriculum for the kids. |
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Post by jeanne on Oct 4, 2008 11:53:32 GMT 1
I think that part of the reason for the full day kindergarten program may be to help those families who are either headed by a single parent working full time, or a family with two parents working full time. Yes, I agree, this is definitely the reason for the transition to full day kindergarten! The same is true where I live. I'm not quite sure that public schools should be footing the bill for these programs that end up being mostly about daycare. The schools have enough financial issues as it is. (And it's also another example of schools being expected to do something which is not part of their original mission.) Because of that funding issue, I believe schools begin to introduce academic concepts at an earlier and earlier age to justify to taxpayers the money spent on these programs and to satisfy the demands of the parents. I'm not sure that these decisions made over money are academically sound and in the best interests (emotionally and developmentally) for the children. That was why I made the comment that Poland should proceed cautiously. Since they fund their schools differently than we in the US do, they should make sure that the model they develop is sound emotionally, socially and academically for the little ones. |
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gigi
Kindergarten kid
Posts: 1,470
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Post by gigi on Oct 4, 2008 23:02:20 GMT 1
I'm not quite sure that public schools should be footing the bill for these programs that end up being mostly about daycare. The schools have enough financial issues as it is. (And it's also another example of schools being expected to do something which is not part of their original mission.) Just to clarify...there is a cost for parents who want their children to be in a child care program before and/or after school. For kindergarten children, it is about $140/week, for grades 1-6 it is about $105/week. The parents I know who exercise this option are extremely grateful for it.  |
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Post by jeanne on Oct 5, 2008 2:40:04 GMT 1
I'm not quite sure that public schools should be footing the bill for these programs that end up being mostly about daycare. The schools have enough financial issues as it is. (And it's also another example of schools being expected to do something which is not part of their original mission.) Just to clarify...there is a cost for parents who want their children to be in a child care program before and/or after school. For kindergarten children, it is about $140/week, for grades 1-6 it is about $105/week. The parents I know who exercise this option are extremely grateful for it. gigi, Yes, I understand that the child care program costs parents, and in some districts parents can opt for an all-day kindergarten when it is not free to all and they must pay for that. But... the current trend is heading in many districts to all-day kindergarten for all. This would be funded by taxpayer dollars and that is why they push the early academics...to justify to taxpayers the additional expenditure. I'm just not sure that's a good thing. |
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Post by Bonobo on Oct 5, 2008 14:55:21 GMT 1
Just to clarify...there is a cost for parents who want their children to be in a child care program before and/or after school. For kindergarten children, it is about $140/week, for grades 1-6 it is about $105/week. The parents I know who exercise this option are extremely grateful for it. The care in kindergarten from 6am till 5 pm, including 3 meals, costs parents about 250 zlotys monthly here, depends on the month. It makes about 100$ per month. Not bad, compared to US. The stay in school after lessons till 5pm is free. You pay for lunches, though, 1.5$ for one. |
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Post by Bonobo on Oct 5, 2008 15:01:06 GMT 1
gigi, Yes, I understand that the child care program costs parents, and in some districts parents can opt for an all-day kindergarten when it is not free to all and they must pay for that. But... the current trend is heading in many districts to all-day kindergarten for all. This would be funded by taxpayer dollars and that is why they push the early academics...to justify to taxpayers the additional expenditure. I'm just not sure that's a good thing. I support early schooling for 6 year old provided they can attend kindergartens. Our kindergarten where we have sent two sons is a very good one. Teachers are caring but also demanding when necessary. Kids acquire a lot in the place. Instead of school which is not adapted to young kids` needs, they should be allowed to learn in kindergarten in preschool class called zero class (zerówka) in Poland. The problem is with country children. Not too many kindergartens there and even if they work in an area, parents don`t send their kids there because of finance. That is why the government rereuires that all kids have to go to school at the age of 6 next year. That is silly. Why not leave kindergarten zero classes alone if they function all right? |
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Post by Bonobo on Jan 10, 2009 22:05:51 GMT 1
Are Polish schools ready for 6-year olds?
Polish Radio
19.09.2008
I'm with the parents on this one. I think the movement to make schooling earlier and earlier for children is detrimental. Children's jobs at an early age is play and discovery of the world around them. I believe being in a restrictive school setting interferes with this. What is the rush? It seems Polish parents exerted a successful pressure on the government.
Compulsory institutionalized education of 6-year olds delayed by three years
Polish Radio
08.01.2009
Following a wave of parents' protests the education ministry has backed off from their idea of introducing compulsory institutionalized
education for children as young as 6 years old as early as this year.
Instead of an obligation, for now the parents will have the right to
send their kids to school at an early age, if they choose to. But in
2012, the government wants all 6-year olds educated within the system.
Karolina Elbanowska, leader of a parents grassroots association "Save the small ones" has criticized the government project, which will still force parents to send small kids to unprepared schools and therefore create a chaos, not beneficial to the development of the young ones.
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Post by jeanne on Jan 11, 2009 15:57:08 GMT 1
It seems Polish parents exerted a successful pressure on the government.
Compulsory institutionalized education of 6-year olds delayed by three years
Polish Radio
08.01.2009
Following a wave of parents' protests the education ministry has backed off from their idea of introducing compulsory institutionalized
education for children as young as 6 years old as early as this year.
Instead of an obligation, for now the parents will have the right to
send their kids to school at an early age, if they choose to. But in
2012, the government wants all 6-year olds educated within the system.
Karolina Elbanowska, leader of a parents grassroots association "Save the small ones" has criticized the government project, which will still force parents to send small kids to unprepared schools and therefore create a chaos, not beneficial to the development of the young ones.
So, it seems they have won a reprieve...Let's hope the schools are prepared by 2012... |
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Post by Bonobo on Mar 17, 2009 21:33:10 GMT 1
President says 'no' to six year olds at school
Polish Radio
10.03.2009
Lech Kaczynski has not agreed to the limiting of the school age to six from seven years of age and argued that the present critical economic situation is not an appropriate time to introduce education reforms. Education Minister Katarzyna Hall said she was aware of the President's doubts but hoped he would support the new law
`The President spoke with understanding of the need to send six year olds to school. He did have certain questions as to the issues concerning the offices at the education ministry and the proposed regulation that a school director need not necessarily be a teacher, though I pointed that it is possible under the present regulations. '
Opponents of the reform point that the Polish education system is not prepared to welcome six year olds at schools. There is lack of qualified presonnel, and educational facitlites enabling a good start for the children, argue the opponenets.
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Post by jeanne on Mar 18, 2009 0:26:25 GMT 1
President says 'no' to six year olds at school
Polish Radio
10.03.2009
Lech Kaczynski has not agreed to the limiting of the school age to six from seven years of age and argued that the present critical economic situation is not an appropriate time to introduce education reforms. Education Minister Katarzyna Hall said she was aware of the President's doubts but hoped he would support the new law
`The President spoke with understanding of the need to send six year olds to school. He did have certain questions as to the issues concerning the offices at the education ministry and the proposed regulation that a school director need not necessarily be a teacher, though I pointed that it is possible under the present regulations. '
Opponents of the reform point that the Polish education system is not prepared to welcome six year olds at schools. There is lack of qualified presonnel, and educational facitlites enabling a good start for the children, argue the opponenets. I'm sure this is not the last we'll hear on this issue. The debates will continue. In my area of the US, kindergarten is usually just for half a day. Lately there has been a trend toward all day kindergarten. One nearby town changed to offering only all day kindergarten this past year as it seemed most parents preferred that. Now a group of parents is lobbying to re-instate the half day programs. I recently read a small article in a national teachers magazine that said in Germany they are returning to kindergartens being set in the woods with children hiking and singing around the campfire. Supposedly there are several hundred of these style kindergartens there. Personally, I would like to see this return to a simpler model rather than what our kindergartens have become. Ours are what first grade used to be with children being taught to read. What purpose it serves to rush them I do not know. |
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Post by Bonobo on Mar 19, 2009 23:48:17 GMT 1
The parliament overthrew President`s veto. It is law now.
I have no opinion now. I need to see how the passed law works in practice.
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Post by Bonobo on Jul 3, 2009 21:48:06 GMT 1
Education Reform: Polish Schools At Sixes and Sevens
by Wojciech Kosc
TRANSITIONS ONLINE
26 June 2009
Polish parents decry the government's move to make six-year-olds attend school with older kids.
WARSAW | Karolina Elbanowska, 28, is the mother of four young children. With summer on the doorstep, she's not only planning her family's holidays. She will spend at least some of her free time this summer thinking about what the Polish government has in store for her children's education.
Instead of considering the educational opportunities in store for her children, she worries about how the newest change to the country's education system may be nothing more than an obstacle to their development.
Last March, the Polish government – a coalition of liberals from the Civic Platform and agrarians from the Polish Peasants Party – pushed through a controversial school reform whereby children will attend first grade from age six instead of age seven, as has been the policy for at least the past 35 years.
Beginning in the 2009-2010 school year, parents will have the option to send their children to first grade at age six. By 2012, school year attendance at primary school will be required for all six-year-olds. Until then, however, parents can decide whether their child is ready and school principals can decide whether they feel their school is appropriate for such young learners.
The law was originally intended to go into effect, with compulsory attendance for all six-year-olds, from the 2009-2010 school year but was postponed due to criticism that the education system was under-prepared. Many parents still believe that three years is far too short a time for the Polish primary-school system to prepare to accommodate hundreds of thousands of new, younger, children.
NO TRUST IN THE SYSTEM
With that in mind, Elbanowska and her husband Tomasz, 30, both journalists with a local weekly in Legionowo, just north of Warsaw, have already made up their minds. They're not sending their son, who will turn six this year, to primary school until they have to. But their other children, who are now one and three, very likely won't have that choice.
Instead the Elbanowskis' eldest will attend "zero grade," which is a compulsory year just before first grade but in most cases held on premises that are separate from the primary school. At zero-grade, kids don't sit behind desks, as in primary school, and there's still quite a lot of fun while serious work, like learning to read, is being carried out to prepare them for school.
"Polish schools are in large part not sufficiently suitable to accommodate six-year-olds, " Elbanowska says. "The schools are very often in old buildings that date back to the 1960s and are now in desperate need of renovation."
The Elbanowskis say that the class schedules at primary schools are too demanding for a six-year-old, not to mention the schools' often inadequate equipment. Even though it's a question of only one year, it represents a huge difference in a child's intellectual and emotional development.
"From zero grade, where they'd be taken care of throughout the day, with three meals, time for a walk and so on, they will now go to schools where there's only one meal," Tomasz Elbanowski says, "and if parents can't take them home directly after lessons, they will end up in overcrowded common rooms."
He and his wife also complain that education authorities drafted a new curriculum for six-year-olds on the assumption that all, or at least very many of them, would soon be attending primary school. "But they're not, and there's a program for six-year-olds in first grade. Only there are no six-year-olds in the first grade," he says.
The Elbanowskis and other parents disgruntled by the government's education policies have banded together under the name "Save Our Kids," an initiative that is finding resonance with families across Poland.
"Parents' trust in the reform is in my opinion close to zero. Here in Legionowo we know that no six-year-old will attend school as of September," Karolina Elbanowska says.
"In some cities where parents will definitely be sending six-year-olds to school, they were in fact forced to do so when local authorities decided to get rid of zero grade," Elbanowska adds. "To me, the current zero grade from which kids go on to first grade is a system that has proven itself. Why is the government working to dismantle it?"
Mariola Zalewicz, deputy principal of a primary school in Kalisz, a town of 100,000 people in central Poland, says that parents are still wary of the reform. At her school, only two families decided to send their six-year-olds to first grade. The children were assessed as sufficiently well-developed to attend first grade with seven-year-olds. Otherwise – since it wouldn't make sense for the school to create a separate first-grade class for just two pupils – they'd have to spend one more year in zero grade.
For Zalewicz, then, bringing six-year-olds into her school presents no special difficulties, at least for now. "There is no cost to us to accommodate two six-year-olds in a class of seven-year-olds. In time, however, there will be more and more six-year-olds attending our school and this means costs to arrange special classrooms for them with carpets, a place to rest and to play," she says.
The Ministry of Education and Sport believes that extending primary-school by a year will ensure that younger children have "better access to education," it said in an e-mail response to questions, adding that the earlier children begin their formal education, the better their chances for further success in life.
PRIVATE SCHOOLS FLOURISH
Not all parents mind the changes to the primary school system, however. Katarzyna Bolechowska, 37, is the mother of six-year-old Karolina. The Bolechowski family lives in the Warsaw district of Ursynow, where local authorities have removed separate facilities for zero grade classes beginning from the new school year, in September.
"My bottom line is that whatever the curriculum, whatever the course books, a child's success at school is dependent on a teacher," says Bolechowska, a kindergarten teacher herself. "A good teacher will almost make a school's disadvantages unimportant, while a bad teacher will ruin the best possible conditions that a school can offer."
Bolechowska runs a private kindergarten for children age two to five. Hers is one of many private facilities that have sprung up to meet the growing demand. Education before age six is not compulsory, and there aren't enough public kindergartens to meet the need. On the other hand, private facilities are often beyond the means of many families: the fees at public kindergartens in Warsaw are in the range of 25 euros to 80 euros monthly, while private kindergartens start at around 200 euros per month.
"It's understandable that parents don't want to send six-year-olds to regular schools," Bolechowska says. "Parents are concerned about their kids' safety, and that their kids will feel lost in the big school building with hundreds of other children."
While the government did give way to criticism by not making primary school mandatory for six-year-olds from this September, it still proved very determined, mustering the votes to overturn President Lech Kaczynski's veto. That put the new system into operation, despite Kaczynski's warning that it was "an experiment on living children."
Supporters of the new system in the government and the left argue it is needed in Poland because an earlier start to compulsory education is a trend across the EU, and implementing change now will mean fewer disparities between children later on. According to the left, the current system simply ensures that many Polish children don't get any early schooling at all because access to preschool facilities is very limited.
Another issue is money. When approving the budget for 2009, the government earmarked 347 million zlotys (77 million euros) to finance the enlarged primary school system. The economic crisis, however, forced it to slash no less than 300 million off that amount. The remaining 47 million is a ludicrous amount, critics bellowed.
With the majority of parents following the Elbanowskis' example, as it looks like they may do, it might just as well be enough.
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Post by Bonobo on Dec 31, 2015 19:19:37 GMT 1
This debate has lasted for 7 years. The old government introduced the regulation against strong opposition. I was opposed too, fearing that schools wouldn`t be prepared to accommodate all those kids. And it turned out I was right - some primary schools in Warsaw hold classes from morning till evening, they are so overcrowded. Who knows if it wasn`t one of major reasons why the old government lost elections in autumn? They were rplaced by new guysw whose main election slogan was bringing back the old system. And it happened yesterday. School starting age raised to seven
30.12.2015 12:12
Parliament has voted to restore the age at which compulsory schooling begins to seven, reversing a reform from the previous government which saw all six-year-olds go to school for the first time earlier this year.
Photo: Flickr.com/www.audio-luci-store.itPhoto: Flickr.com/www.audio-luci-store.it
“This [legislation] is a positive answer to the expectations of parents, who have led a dramatic fight for the good of their children, the good of Polish education,” commented the Law of Justice (PiS) MP Marzena Machałek.
The previous Civic Platform (PO) government began to gradually lower the compulsory school starting age to six as early as 2009, though was faced with significant opposition from parents and the reform only came to an end in September 2015.
“Children aged six go to school in 24 EU countries, in some of them they start even earlier. Children in over 130 countries around the world begin school aged six or earlier.
“Why do you [PiS MPs] believe that Polish children, in contrast to other children, not only European ones, are not able to begin school education aged six?” argued Joanna Kluzik-Rostkowska, the former PO Minister of Education.
Under the legislation six-year-olds will have compulsory kindergarten, though parents will have the option of sending them to school early under certain conditions. Kindergarten for five-year-olds will no longer be compulsory, though they retain the right to a kindergarten place should the parents request it.
To introduce the changes current six-year-olds, who are all at school, will be allowed to repeat the first class of school next year if their parents ask for this. Children born in the first half of 2008, who are currently in the second class of school, will be able to repeat that class next year.
A total of 269 MPs from PiS and Kukiz’15 supported the changes, with 156 from PO and Modern Poland voting against. (sl/rg) - See more at: www.thenews.pl/1/9/Artykul/234754,School-starting-age-raised-to-seven#sthash.5vPZMctF.dpuf |
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Post by Bonobo on Oct 2, 2016 15:08:21 GMT 1
PiS abolished the controvercial reform by the previous government, but it caused chaos, too. Many 6 year old children stayed in kindergartens, blocking places for those youngest.
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