he NIK audit points to low educational effects in Polish schools. In school year 2009/2010, the results of tests and exams got worse in one fourth of primary- and lower secondary schools as compared with the previous year. In one fourth of vocational schools covered by the audit the students did not acquire the right to practise a profession.
Pedagogical supervision
Low educational results are above all a consequence of the inefficient system of pedagogical supervision. The frequently changing concept of the ways of exercising pedagogical supervision also has an adverse impact on its quality. Since 2006, this concept has been changed five times. The NIK inspectors identified numerous irregularities on part of local education authorities. In the audit period, the provision concerning the number of hired inspectors was not observed in any of the reviewed local education authorities. In all institutions the headcount was much lower than planned. In the years 2008-2010, the number of schools per one schools superintendent was 40, that is 26 more than allowed by the regulations.
Inspections carried out by local education authorities are not very effective and do not reflect the actual education level in schools. A surprising fact is that in more than 32 thousand of such inspections, the schools superintendents confirmed insufficient educational and pedagogical effects only in 42 cases. Considering the number and scale of irregularities in the Polish education system, there should be many more post-audit recommendations.
Some forms of supervision, such as external evaluation (practical assessment of educational effects made by persons from the outside of a given institution) were conducted on too small a scale. In school year 2009/2010, the audited local education authorities conducted such evaluation only in 0.4 percent of schools. In the first semester of school year 2010/2011, that percentage went up to 2.9 percent only. It was the case because of the shortage of competent evaluators. A training programme in external evaluation was organised only more than half a year after establishing effective principles of pedagogical supervision which the Ministry of National Education introduced with more than two months’ delay. The ordinance on pedagogical supervision of 2006 ceased to be effective as of 24 August 2009 and the ordinance on pedagogical supervision of 2009 entered into force as of 9 November 2009.
Teachers working in schools often failed to meet requirements specified by the Ministry of National Education. 6 of 51 audited schools employed teachers without required qualifications. Safe and hygienic conditions were not guaranteed to students in 55 percent of schools. Internal evaluation was not conducted at all or was carried out in a limited scope. In some cases educational requirements were not adapted to students with special educational needs.
A spark of hope are active initiatives taken by the Ministry of National Education and local education authorities which aim at streamlining the system of pedagogical supervision in Poland. They include, for instance: training programmes, debates and conferences organised by the Ministry of National Education for schools superintendents and by schools superintendents for schools. However, the positive overtone of these actions does not change the fact that pedagogical supervision in Poland requires many improvements and consolidation of proper principles. After all, it should be a tool allowing for improvement of the quality and effects of education in schools and should enable objective evaluation of school principals and teachers’ work.
