Polityka edukacyjna w procesie reformowania ustroju współczesnej Polski (1989-2005)

Abstract

Zasadniczym problemem rozprawy jest polityka edukacyjna państwa w procesie reformowania ustroju politycznego Polski w latach 1989-2005. Omówiłam główne kierunki wprowadzanych zmian w państwie po 1989 roku. Przedstawiłam czynniki społeczne, polityczne i ekonomiczne oraz międzynarodowe uwarunkowania przeobrażeń ustrojowych. Wskazałam priorytety i zadania polityki edukacyjnej oraz kierunki zmian systemu edukacyjnego. Wymieniłam główne cele strategiczne Polski w obszarach: nauki i szkolnictwa wyższego oraz oświaty i wychowania. Szczególną uwagę zwróciłam na kierunki i strategie edukacyjne realizowane w latach dziewięćdziesiątych XX wieku i pierwszej dekadzie XXI wieku oraz założenia polityki edukacyjnej po 1999 roku. Zaprezentowałam zakres reform w szkolnictwie wyższym państwowym i szkolnictwie wyższym niepublicznym. Przedstawiłam zmiany prawa regulującego funkcjonowanie szkolnictwa wyższego oraz zmiany programowe w szkolnictwie wyższym. Przeprowadziłam analizę programów wyborczych Sojuszu Lewicy Demokratycznej, Polskiego Stronnictwa Ludowego, Akcji Wyborczej „Solidarność”, Prawa i Sprawiedliwości, Platformy Obywatelskiej i Ligi Polskich Rodzin. Przedstawiłam instytucje odpowiedzialne za edukację zarówno publiczne jak i prywatne. Omówiłam fundamentalne zmiany wprowadzone w szkolnictwie zawodowym. Przedstawiłam refleksje i wnioski wynikające z reformowania edukacji, jak również perspektywy rozwoju polityki edukacyjnej w XXI wieku.

Education is the factor of the social, economic and civilisation development of the country. The system of the national education has always been at the centre of attention of the political parties that devote their programmes mainly to the areas connected with education. Thus education has become one of the components of the state policy, which is strongly dependent on the political changes. The main aim of this thesis is the state education policy in the process of reformation the political system in Poland in 1989-2005. The thesis consists of the directions of the education policy in the times of the significant system changes and reforms of the education system at the turn of the 19th and the 21st centuries as well as the conception of the education system present in the programmes of the political parties. Moreover, I analysed the most important reforms of the education system at the turn of the 19th and the 21st centuries. In the analysis, the years 1989-2005 were taken into account, the time of the political transformation in Poland and the implementation of the most significant system changes in the Polish education. The national and educational administrations were making the amendments of the all types schools’ performance through the issued deeds. These amendments consisted in the education system modification and implementation of the structural reforms. Furthermore, these reforms included the implementation of the new educational stages, new types of schools, new external exams, new subordination of schools to communal, district and voivodeship councils. The leading parties implemented in the years 1989-2005 the series of curricular, structural and normative changes in the performance of the education system within the scope of the accomplishment of their education policy. The effects of the education policy, featuring the next educational changes, were the break of the state monopoly, privatisation of the education system and its merchandising – the implementation of the market mechanisms to the education system and treating schools as the institution performing educational services. The reforms of the education system (implemented since 1990) constituted one of the most important goals of the political changes and the education policy of the government in Poland. Every reform of the education system implemented by the next leading parties initiated changes in the schools’ performance in the top-down way. The particular changes were implemented within the scope of the reform introduced from the school year 1999/2000. The reform was introduced to the middle school in the school year 2002/2003 and that step was the last one (taking the 4-year-long technical colleges into consideration) in the school year 2005/2006. In the meanwhile, the graduates of the high schools went into the academic institutions where the structural reform started to be executed: three-stage studies according to the Bologna Agreement. In the Chapter 1 entitled ‘The Reform of the State System’, I discussed the main directions of the implemented changes in Poland after 1989: political, social and economic reforms. I also presented the social, political and economic factors as well as the international conditioning of the system transformation. I indicated the year 1989, which was the crucial year not only for Poland but also for Europe, because then the socialistic countries collapsed, particularly the Soviet Union and it changed the political, social and economic life almost in every country in the region. I underlined that it was Poland that began the system transformation, and as the consequence of that it turned into the democratic republic where the leading organs were chosen through the general election and the economy turned from the planned into the free market economy and the policy was oriented on the establishment of the civil society in the social sphere. What is more, I indicated the political reforms being crucial for the democratic political system based on the political pluralism (almost to establish organisations informally within the scope of the democratic constitutional order in the social, political and trade unions), freedom of speech, democratic method of appointment of the administrational representatives, judicial autonomy and their statutory control warrant to other organs, strong and informally elected local government. Next, I presented activities conducted in the process of the economic transformation, especially the programme of the economic reforms, so called the Balcerowicz Plan. I also indicated implementation stages of the economic changes and their economic and social effects. In Chapter 1, I attempted to analyse the formation conditioning of the Polish civil society. I discussed changes in the society structure, social awareness and within the scope of the interest group.