The Education System in Poland

The Ministry of Education and Sports administers, monitors, and oversees the educational structure of Poland. Education in Poland has 4 levels: Primary, Secondary, and Upper Education. Children ages of 6 or 7 attend the primary school for 6 years. The next is the lower secondary level comprising of 3 years in gymnasium after which an exam is taken. It is then followed by upper secondary level. Polish students have several options for their upper secondary education. They can choose 3 years in liceum or 4 years in technikum. Either alternative will still require students to pass a maturity examination, similar to the France’s baccalaureat and Britain’s A-levels examination. Polish schools and universities include one or two foreign languages in their curriculum. English still remains the most widely taught followed by German, French, Spanish, Russian, and Italian.

In a recent analysis of the Programme for International Student Assessment, organized by the OECD, Poland’s education was rated as 23rd best globally. There are hundreds of educational institutions and traditional universities all over major cities such as Warsaw, Lublin, Krakow, Torun and Wroclaw. About 10,000 researchers and 91,000 scientists are currently focusing on research and development making Poland an investment hub for multinational companies. Industry giants like IBM, Microsoft, HP, Google, Intel, Siemens, and Motorola have R&D centers in Poland.