Polonia: Polish schools told to pare back science in push for new Pole

Polonia/Enero de 2017/Fuente: Financial Times

RESUMEN: Desde que Ewa Korulska lanzó la escuela intermedia Startowa como directora en 2007, ella ha querido que fuera un modelo para la educación polaca. Ahora la escuela en un suburbio de Varsovia podría ser barrida como las reformas educativas planeadas que traen batallas culturales entre el gobierno conservador de Polonia y sus críticos a las escuelas de la nación. Las escuelas intermedias, como Startowa, que enseñan a niños entre 13 y 16 años, serían abolidas, pero la Sra. Korulska y muchos profesionales de la educación tienen preocupaciones más profundas. Ellos dicen que los cambios planeados, incluyendo menos tiempo dedicado a la ciencia y la escolaridad menos obligatoria, dejarán a los niños mal preparados para el empleo y la vida moderna. «Lo que está sucediendo es desastroso», dice Korulska, cuya brillante y moderna escuela tiene paredes cubiertas con fotografías de sus alumnos. «El currículo actual no era perfecto. Pero esto es como alguien con un agujero en su techo que, en lugar de reparar el agujero, arruina la casa y no tiene donde vivir después «.

Since Ewa Korulska launched Startowa middle school as director in 2007 she has wanted it to be a model for Polish education.

Now the school in a Warsaw suburb could be swept away as planned educational reforms bring cultural battles between Poland’s conservative government and its critics to the nation’s schools. Middle schools such as Startowa, which teach 13- to 16-year-olds, would be abolished, but Ms Korulska and many education professionals have deeper concerns. They say the planned changes, including less time devoted to science and less compulsory schooling, will leave children ill-prepared for jobs and modern life. “What’s happening is disastrous,” says Ms Korulska, whose bright, modern school has walls covered with photographs of its pupils. “The current curriculum wasn’t perfect. But this is like someone with a hole in his roof who, instead of repairing the hole, wrecks the house and has nowhere to live afterwards.” Many in the education establishment fear the reform is part of a “cultural counter-revolution” promised by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, chairman of the ruling Law and Justice party. This aims to roll back the advance of social liberalism since communism collapsed and Poland joined the EU, returning the country to more conservative, Catholic roots. Like many teachers and academics, Ms Korulska worries that the government’s plans for schools to spend much more time on history lessons and rewrite the history curriculum are aimed at creating a “new Pole”. “I’m afraid [the reforms] will turn children into young nationalists, not patriots,” she says. “It’s about raising a human being who is obedient, xenophobic, traditionalist, extremely Catholic, without any European values.” The school plans have become the biggest flashpoint between the government and its opponents since mass demonstrations by women in October forced a U-turn on a proposed near total abortion ban.

The powerful teachers’ union is planning a national strike in March and calling — with support from opposition political parties — for a referendum on the proposals. Students are holding protest marches in several cities on Wednesday, in part over the education plans. Mateusz Kijowski, chairman of the Committee for Defence of Democracy, which has organised several large anti-government protests, says Law and Justice “want to create ‘their’ man, who is devoted to them, who doesn’t listen to science and facts, but is just a believer.” The government is reversing a 1999 reform that abolished a two-stage system dating from the communist era, with eight years of compulsory primary education starting at age seven followed by four or five years at a vocational or academic secondary school. The 1999 changes brought in a three-stage system extending basic schooling by a year, with six years of primary school plus three at a middle school, before three or four years of higher school.

Poland’s education ministry told the Financial Times that the 1999 reforms and middle schools had “met a negative reaction from most of society, and simply didn’t work” in terms of improving education. Education experts say Poland in fact advanced impressively in international Pisa tests for 15-year-olds between 2000 and 2012, rising from below average in all three subjects tested to become a top-10 country in science and reading, and 13th in maths. Its scores declined slightly from 2012-15, though it was still in the upper part of the rankings. Abolishing middle schools will cost jobs among the country’s 684,000 teachers. But Slawomir Broniarz, president of the Polish Teachers’ Union, says the biggest issue is the “embarrassing” new curriculum. “This is not the Poland of the 21st century,” he says. Teachers warn that reducing the length of compulsory schooling will lower attainment and bring forward by a year decisions on whether children should continue into more advanced education. Ms Korulska also frets over an emphasis on rote learning in draft new base curriculums, instead of on learning how to search for reliable data in a world of “information overflow”. © AFP The new curriculum reduces time for physics, chemistry, biology and IT in favour of history, where Mr Broniarz says the government is trying to create new heroes and “patriotic patterns”. “I’m a history teacher but I’m worried about these shifts in proportions,” he says. “You can get a Nobel Prize for physics but not for Polish history.” Teachers complain, too, that the sex education curriculum omits any reference to abortion and is being written by an ardent Catholic who opposes contraception. The draft biology curriculum for primary schools plays down the theory of evolution. The education ministry denies the changes are politically motivated or aimed at turning pupils into nationalists. “We want children finishing school to value their mother tongue and culture, with all its heritage,” it said. “We want to step away from common education methods that are all about taking tests.” The ministry says the plans were based on broad consultation although teachers say their views were not heeded. In Startowa Ms Korulska says her school will support the strike, and teachers, opposition parties and parents’ associations are coming together to oppose the plans. Karolina, 14, a pupil, worries that a less rigorous curriculum will reduce Poles’ chances of working or studying abroad. “We’ll be perceived less well by other countries,” she says. “We’ll go back to the 19th century.”

Fuente: https://www.ft.com/content/d2927cfe-e222-11e6-8405-9e5580d6e5fb