English

WHO WE ARE

Citizens for Education is a civic movement of organisations and individuals acting on behalf od the Polish school system. We have initiated a forum for the public debate and cooperation of all those who are concerned for the state of our education, its quality and its future. We are not connected with any political party; on the contrary, we advocate that the issues of education are dealt with above and apart from any party’s political agenda. Our general aim is to build the civic educational policy in Poland.

We intend to:

  • act for distancing educational policies from political agendas
  • provoke and stimulate public debate and the open exchange of arguments and information concerning the challenges, successes and problems of the Polish system of education
  • invoke and popularize high standards of the debate in the education
  • mobilize citizens to take active part in all kind of discussions and decision-making processes on the national, regional and local levels
  • formulate and monitor any proposed legal solutions and acts of law regulating the system of education.

We promise to support any moves toward the realization of the proposals agreed upon through open public debate and assembled in the document „The Agreement for Education”.

WHAT WE DO

  • we monitor the changes in the educational laws
  • we inform about the consequences of these changes
  • we popularize good practices of engagement with children and youth
  • we suport the citizens in their actions for the improvement of the Polish education

HOW WE ACT

We, individuals and organizations affiliated to the social movement Citizens for Education, observe the following rules of engagement:

  • IN THE BEST FAITH, for the good of the Polish education;
  • IN THE NON-PARTY MANNER, DISAVOWING ACTIONS PROMOTING ANY POLITICAL PARTIES, disavowing actions promoting any political parties;
  • THROUGH CONSENSUS, respecting each other’s views and when necessary trying to work out a compromise in an open discussion;
  • IN SOLIDARITY, supporting and helping each other to the best of our ability;
  • OPENLY, so that everyone has access to information about activities undertaken by the members of our movement;
  • EFFECTIVELY, not refuting any decisions and positions already agreed upon;
  • COOPERATIVELY, sharing work and tasks.

THE MOST IMPORTANT ACTIONS UNDERTAKEN SO FAR

For two years of our existence we engaged in activities aiming to improve the functioning of the Polish education. We took part in the “Public Hearing” (Obywatelskie Wysłuchanie Publiczne) which deliberated upon the so-called „six-year- olds reform” (the law changing the school-age threshold back to seven); we participated in the works of the so-called Group of Experts of the Good Change in the Ministry of Education, we have organized a series of academic debates in Polish universities, with the topics related to various aspects of education (among others: beaurocracy in education, best solutions for teacher training etc; we have organized the “Citizens Raport” (Raport Obywatelski) – an independent public summary of the government-organised and other discussions about education; we have published opinions in the process of public consultations, among others for the new Education Act and for the new Core Curriculum for Elementary Schools; we are present at the meetings of the Parliamentary Committee for Education, we co-organized the parental protests and the protests of teachers against the “educational reform” proposed by the government.