In Poland, the right to education, understood as the right to study in organised forms, is guaranteed by the Constitution. Poland’s highest law also stipulates one’s duty to study until he or she reaches the age of 18. The start of obligatory education, on the other hand, is foreseen by the Education law, and set at the age of six. The educational system in Poland is divided into four phases: preschool, primary school, secondary school and tertiary education.

Before starting obligatory education, children can attend preschool institutions. This form of education¹ is becoming increasingly popular in Poland. In 2023, over 94% of children from the 3–5 age group used preschool education (almost twice as many as in 2010). At the same time, the amount of places in preschool institutions grew. The number of preschool institutions (in most part managed by public administration bodies) increased from 19,000 in 2010 to almost 23,000 in 2023. Thanks to this development, the number of children per one preschool institution decreased from 117 children in 2010 to 75 children in 2023. The percentage of children with disabilities among preschool attendees rose – in the 2023/2024 school year, such children constituted almost 4% of all children attending kindergartens and kindergarten departments, while at the beginning of the last decade, it was fewer than 1%.

1) Preschool education is provided in kindergartens, pre-school departments in primary schools and in pre-school education complexes and pre-school points.

The age from which education becomes compulsory and the duration of compulsory education are not uniform in all EU countries. In Poland, obligatory education starts at the age of six and lasts until the age of 18 (the Polish Constitution stipulates the duty to study until one is 18). Obligatory education is divided into an eight-year primary school, after leaving of which one has to continue education either in a four-year secondary school, five-year technical school or three-year 1st-degree vocational school and two-year 2nd-degree vocational school. According to the net enrolment rate (which measures the degree of the universality of studying), in 2023, 92% of all children from the 7–14 age group attended primary schools (compared to 96% in 2010). With regard to primary school, net enrolment rate below 100% does not mean that fewer children than supposed to fulfil their educational duty. This situation might be caused e.g. by the fact that some children registered in Poland study abroad, where they stay with their parents. In addition, in the years 2022–2023, underage refugees from Ukraine were not obliged to attend Polish schools; instead, they could continue learning in their schools in Ukraine in a remote mode. Attending Polish schools started being obligatory for them as of 1st September 2024. According to the Ministry of Education and Science’s framework curriculum for primary schools, 1st–3rd graders spent at school approximately 20 hours a week on average, whereas the 4th–8th graders’ average time at school fluctuated between 24 and 34 hours a week. Students learning in special needs primary schools and special needs units constituted about 6% of all primary school students in the 2023/2024 school year (compared to about 4% in the 2017/2018 school year).

In the 2023/2024 school year, primary school leavers most often chose to continue their education in secondary schools (44% students) and technical schools (42%). Vocational schools of the 1st degree in the same period attracted 12% of students, while vocational schools of the 2nd degree, special needs vocational training schools and secondary art schools were the choice of 2% of students. The percentage of students in special needs schools and special needs units slightly increased – in the 2023/2024 school year, they constituted over 3% of all students in secondary education (compared to approximately 2% at the beginning of the last decade).

In 2023, about 4% of young people aged 18–24 did not continue education (slightly fewer than in 2010). This percentage was visibly lower than the EU average, where almost 10% of young people finished education early. Poland was the third EU country (behind only Croatia and Greece) with the lowest share of young people discontinuing education. Similarly to 2010, 42% young adults aged 19–24 went to university or college in 2023. Until 2018, the percentage of university or college students at this age was systematically falling, but in subsequent years, it started growing thanks to, among other factors, the inflow of foreign students. However, due to demographic changes, the number of students in Polish universities or colleges shrank by one third in the period of 2010-2023. In the 2023/2024 academic year, tertiary students with confirmed disabilities constituted approximately 2% of all tertiary students (a similar percentage to that from the 2010/2011 academic year).

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According to the results of the ‘Nastolatki 3.0 NASK’ (Eng. Teens 3.0) report conducted in 2022, young people aged 7-19 spent an average of about 5h and 36 min per day online on the weekdays. According to NASK, in 2022, teens declared using the Internet most often through mobile phones and smartphones (89% of responses), laptops (44%), desktop computers and TVs (about 25% each).

Telephone or video chats and using instant messaging (through Skype, Messenger, WhatsApp, Viber, etc.) were the most popular online activities of young people of school age in Poland (similar to the EU average). In 2023, almost 98% of those aged 16-24 were engaged in in this sort of online activity in Poland, compared to 95% in the EU. Other popular online activities included using social networking platforms (most often Messenger, TikTok and YouTube) and sending and receiving e-mails.

The widening of banks’ range of products and services addressed to the youngest users resulted in the growth of online banking among young people (from 26% in 2010 to 55% in 2023). However, young Poles used online banking less often that their EU counterparts (61% in 2023).

As the Internet has become increasingly widely used, digital skills of young Poles have been improving. The first edition of the research into digital skills (which started in 2015) showed that it was the youngest people who most often had basic and more advanced digital skills. In 2021, the range of skills examined in the framework of the research was updated, which made comparing them with previous years impossible. In the second edition of the research, young people again demonstrated overall digital skills at a basic and advanced level (63% in 2023), but fewer of them than in 2021 (69%). At the same time, the share of young people who had poor, narrow or limited digital competences grew (from 30% in 2021 to 36% in 2023).

The research into digital skills examines five areas of competence: the ability to use data and information, communication and cooperation skills, creation of digital content, online security and solving problems. Young Poles demonstrated basic or advanced skills in the majority of these categories. In 2021 and 2023 over 90% of people aged 16-24 (so more than on average in the EU) proved skilled at a basic or advanced level in the fields of: communication and cooperation, solving problems, creating digital content and using data and information. However, young Poles are less skilled when it comes to online security compared to their EU counterparts, and this trend is intensifying. In 2023, a smaller percentage of young people at school age than in 2021 could boast basic or advanced online security skills (a fall from 72% to 66% in the 16-24 age group).

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PISA study¹ measures students’ competences in three areas: reading, mathematics and scientific literacy. The average results Polish students obtained in PISA 2022 deteriorated in all these three areas compared to the results from a decade earlier, and were one of the lowest in the whole history of PISA. Poland’s poor results were no exception – the average results for all OECD countries fell. In 2022, Polish students obtained better results compared to OECD students than a decade earlier, but lower than in 2018. As regards the EU, Polish students were fourth best in reading and mathematics, and fifth best in science.

In all the areas tested in the framework of PISA, the percentage of students with the poorest achievement rates, which indicate only very basic skills and an increased risk of problems in further education and adult life, grew. As regards maths, 23% of Polish students obtained the lowest achievement rates (compared to 21% in 2009), in reading and understanding it was 22% (compared to 15% in 2009), and in life sciences 19% (compared to 13% in 2009). According to the Educational Research Institute, these relatively poor results could have been the consequence of several factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing remote learning, as well as the educational reform

1) The study is carried out by OECD every three years starting in 2000. The 2022 edition was exceptionally moved by one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Within the past several years, the formats of important national exams changed as a result of factors such as the implementation of educational reforms (e.g. discontinuing lower secondary schools, ‘gymnasia’). Since 2019, students graduating from primary schools have had to take obligatory final exams in three subjects: Polish, maths and a foreign modern language. English was Polish students’ most frequent choice as a foreign modern language in the primary school final exams – in 2024, it was selected by almost 98% of eight-graders (compared to 95% in 2019). German was chosen by about 2% of students, whereas other foreign languages (Russian, Spanish, French or Italian) was picked by less than 1%. The average results in primary school final exams have improved since their introduction (apart from the results in Polish and Italian). In 2024, Polish students obtained 66% of all possible points in English, 61% in Polish and 53% in maths.

As regards secondary school leaving exams, the pass rate varied throughout the past decade, which was caused, among other things, by changes in the rules of these exams. 2023 was the first year when students who graduated from an eight-grade primary school (re-introduced in the 2017 schooling system reform) took secondary school leaving exams. The pass rate was the same in 2023 and 2024, i.e. 84%, which was the best result since 2010 (when it was 82%). Likewise in primary school final exams, the most frequently chosen language at secondary school leaving exams was English. This language was also the additional subject most often chosen by students at an expanded level. In the exams at a basic level, Polish students obtained the best results in English and other foreign languages (except for German), and the poorest in German, Polish and maths.

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Volunteering is an activity undertaken willingly and without financial gain; it aims to benefit individuals or a group of people from outside the household (and excluding the volunteer's family). Volunteering can also be performed for the benefit of society, the environment, a specific city, town or village, or community. The percentage of young people (aged 15-24) declaring involvement in voluntary services decreased from 45% in 2016 to 27% in 2022. In 2016, the share of young people engaged in voluntary work was higher than the average in the 15-89 age group, while in 2022, the percentage of the youngest volunteers was slightly lower than that of the total volunteers in Poland.

Volunteering may be either individual or institutional. Individual volunteering includes helping friends, acquaintances and neighbours, assisting strangers, and acting for the benefit of society, the environment or a particular city, town or village. Young Poles, as people from other age groups, are more likely to select this form of voluntary work. Nevertheless, young people’s involvement in the above-mentioned type of voluntary work has significantly declined, from 40% in 2016 to 25% in 2022. Institutional volunteering, on the other hand, is unpaid work performed as a member of an organization or as a person supporting the operation of an organization, association, foundation, public institution, church or other organizational unit. The involvement of young Poles in this form of volunteering within an organization or institution decreased from 10% in 2016 to 5% in 2022.

As a result of the outburst of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new type of voluntary service, aimed at mitigating the effects of the pandemic, was introduced in the 2022 study. Almost 8% of volunteers aged 15-24 declared involvement in this type of voluntary service. This was one of the lowest percentages among all the age groups. Young volunteers (similarly to those from other age groups) declared more often that their help was partially aimed at mitigating the effects of the pandemic, and less often that they helped others exclusively in their illness or limitations caused by the pandemic.

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