File:ERIC ED540383. Education in Poland. Bulletin, 1922, No. 41.pdf

Poland, reconstituted as a result of the war, comprises the territory formerly divided among the great powers of Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Prussia. Its area extends over 149,140 square miles and its population, according to the census of September 30, 1921, is estimated at 27,160,163, of which two-thirds are Poles. The remainder comprises Ruthenians, Ukranians, Jews, Germans, Lithuanians, and others. The constitution of the Polish Republic was adopted by the Seim (Diet) on March 17, 1921. The President, elected by general suffrage for a term of seven years, excercises the executive authority through a ministry responsible to the legislature, which consists of a Diet and Senate united in a National Assembly. As regards local government, the three parts have not yet been unified, so that the old institutions still prevail. The restitution of Poland as an independent nation on November 9, 1918, brought forth problems in the field of education that none of her recently born sister states were called upon to confront. The fatal division of the Polish people under three essentially different political and administrative authorities had created certain organizations, articulations and types of schools that had little or nothing to do with the real need of the people. In the Poland as delimited and handed over to Russia by the Congress of Vienna, in 1815--educational facilities were lamentable and neglected. Schools were few and inadequate, and those that existed in no way did justice to the people for whom they were intended. In Prussian Poland, conditions were by no means better. Here education, though compulsory, lacked the humanizing element and was forced upon the people with a complete disregard for their needs and requirements. Far better fared education in Galacia or Austrian Poland where Polish schools were allowed to develop and were little interfered with by the central authorities. The table of contents contains the following: (1) Conditions Prior to the Reunion; (2) Elementary Education; (3) Articulation between Elementary and Secondary Schools; (4) Secondary Education; (5) School Organization and Administration; (6) Medical Care; (7) Teacher Training; (8) Agricultural Education; (9) Trade and Industrial Education; (10) Commercial Education; (11) Higher Education; and (12) References. [Best copy available is provided.]