Polish domestic tensions: Education in the crosshairs
The Polish education system, which was successfully reformed once in the 2000s, is now facing another proposed reform, sparking sharp tensions between the government and the right-leaning President.
Poland has one of Europe’s strongest public education systems, thanks to reforms carried out around the turn of the millennium with broad political consensus. While even the best systems occasionally need updating, the current initiative lacks the very element that made the previous round so successful: cross-party agreement.
At present, the debate has intensified around the introduction of school health education (edukacja zdrowotna). According to Gazeta Wyborcza, President Karol Nawrocki fundamentally supports including health education in schools, but he does not accept the concept developed by the Ministry of Education (Ministerstwo Edukacji Narodowej, MEN) and intends to propose his own version. The president believes the subject should be “ideology-free” and plans to develop an alternative program with the help of experts.
The immediate context of the debate is Nawrocki’s veto of the comprehensive “Kompas jutra” education reform bill, which included the institutional introduction of health education. Civil organizations and student activists reported that, prior to the veto, consultations were held at the Presidential Palace, where—although the president himself was not present—his chief of staff, Paweł Szefernaker, conveyed the president’s position. According to participants, the president does not oppose the new subject in principle but objects to certain content elements, particularly those addressing sexuality, social roles, or identity issues.
The Kompas jutra reform was not about introducing a single subject but aimed at a comprehensive content and pedagogical renewal of Polish public education. Its core elements included reducing curriculum overcrowding, strengthening competency-based education, emphasizing critical thinking and mental health, and introducing new subjects tailored to 21st-century challenges, including health education. The government argues that while Polish education continues to perform well internationally, it increasingly struggles to address students’ psychological pressures, growing social inequalities, and the rapid changes in the labor market. The background of the reform also lies in Poland’s highly successful education reforms of the early 2000s: unified foundational education in lower grades, restructuring of the school system, and curriculum modernization led to significant improvements in PISA results. However, that reform has now “run its course”: experts argue that societal, technological, and mental health challenges over the past two decades require deeper content renewal. The current debate, therefore, is not about whether reform is needed, but about who determines its direction and framework: policy logic or political-ideological considerations.
The MEN and Education Minister Barbara Nowacka firmly maintain that health education should operate on a unified national curriculum and, in the long term, possibly become a mandatory subject. The ministry emphasizes that the aim of education is practical, not ideological: protecting students’ physical and mental health, promoting prevention and a health-conscious lifestyle, and providing fundamental medical and mental health knowledge. MEN stresses that the program is based on expert input and aligns with European education policy trends.
The conflict is increasingly taking on political and campaign dimensions. Gazeta Wyborcza notes that health education has become a symbolic issue in the upcoming presidential election, highlighting differing social policy visions between the president and the government. While the government sees the subject as part of modernizing the education system, the president is emphasizing content control and “worldview neutrality” to gain political leverage.
The decision—regarding how health education will be implemented, its content, and legal status in Polish schools—is expected by the end of March. In the meantime, the debate illustrates that education policy in Poland remains one of the most sensitive arenas for political and cultural conflict, where curriculum questions quickly escalate into broader ideological disputes.
