The education reform which started in 1999 introduced many text books for different subjects and made the administration responsible for letting them into schools based on positive opinions of experts. That change resulted in a great number of new publishers and school book titles. It also developed huge competition in the market which, in turn, may give rise to corruption.
The issue of free text books is also a hot topic. They provide a great education opportunity for children from rural areas and poor families. On the other hand, the Polish Chamber of Books (from Polish: PIK) alerts that free text books for children from grade 1-3 will cause a drop in publishers’ revenue of about PLN 350 million a year. According to PIK, losses will also affect booksellers, wholesalers and printing houses. Experts from the Polish Chamber of Books are sceptic about the level of the subsidy proposed by MEN which is to help provide exercise books and other single-use materials to school children.
The assumptions and findings from the debate organised by NIK have become part of the audit programme: Availability of school books. The audit results will be particularly interesting for the Ministry of National Education, teachers and book publishers.
