Education in the People's Republic of Poland
Encyclopedia
Education in the People's Republic of Poland
was controlled by the communist state
, which provided primary schools, secondary school
s, vocational education
and universities
. Education in communist Poland was compulsory from age 7 to 15.
Prior to World War II
, education
in Poland
was limited. According to official statistics of the time, the number of children who did not attend school in the 1935-1936 school year was 600,000 out of a total of 5,143,100 children of school age. In the 1937-1938 year only 127,100 finished seventh grade, and only 36,400 of these students were from rural
areas. All secondary schools, even public
ones, charged high tuition fees that many Poles simply could not afford. This meant that only 11.1% of schoolchildren would go on past primary school.
When the communist
government came to power following the World War II, it greatly reformed the education system. In May, 1945, the Ministry of Education drew up a plan outlining an educational system based on several principles: that education in Poland be free, uniform, public and compulsory. It was to be free in that tuition fees would be abolished and a system of scholarship
s, dormitories
and government assistance be put into place ensuring that every child had equal access to education. It was to be uniform in that the same curriculum
be taught at every school and that rural institutions be brought up to the same standard as urban
ones. It was to be public in that the state would control every educational institution. And it was to be compulsory in that parent
s or legal guardian
s could be imprisoned
if the children in their care did not attend school. The plan also stated that the curriculum had to be so modelled that children would gain a wide base of knowledge, learn to think for themselves, and leave school with the scientific
world outlook.
Though the plan was formulated in 1945, it was not be until 1947 that it would be largely put into practice. The acquisition of new territory and the destruction wreaked on the country during the war meant that schools had to be built or rebuilt, and new teachers had to be trained.
The Nazi and Soviet massacre of the prewar Polish intelligentsia, and the emigration of many other intellectuals and skilled people, had left Poland severely educationally lacking. As a result, the Communist program of free and compulsory school education for all, and the establishment of new free universities, received much support. Universities from the lost eastern territories were evacuated to the new western territories: from Wilno
to Toruń
and from Lwów
to Wrocław. Many new universities were founded, including the famous Film University of Łódź.
The Communists thus took the opportunity to create a new Polish educated class, taught in an educational system which they controlled; history as well as other sciences had to follow Marxist view as well as be subject to political censorship
. In 1948, the curriculum was altered to make communist ideology
and theory
more central. In addition, various sciences were affected by the communist ideology. Many western books and publications were decreed illegal and possession of any of them could result in fines or even imprisonment. History especially was changed to minimize the role of the events that could undermine the position of the communist government; for example, the Polish-Soviet War
of 1919-1921 was completely omitted from some history books, and the members of the Polish Government in Exile
, like Władysław Sikorski, were portrayed as traitors. The science of economics
was also deeply affected, as communist ideology stressed that central planning was always supperior to capitalism
, and banned works like those of János Kornai
on the shortage economy
. These acts of censorship
would now be considered illegal. Between 1951 and 1953 a large number of pre-war reactionary professors was dismissed from the universities. Among them were Maria
and Stanisław Ossowski, Władysław Tatarkiewicz, Izydora Dąmbska and many of the most prominent Polish scientists of the epoch. The control over art and artists was deepened and with time the Socialist Realism
became the only movement that was accepted by the authorities. After 1949 most of works of art presented to the public had to be in line with the voice of the Party and present its propaganda
.
Schools were also standardized into seven-year primary schools and four-year secondary schools. A large scale campaign to build hundreds of new secondary schools in rural villages, inner city areas, and on the outskirts of towns was also initiated. It was hoped that this would eliminate the educational privilege richer Poles enjoyed and make the system fairer for everyone.
By the 1950s, rapid urbanization
and the associated internal migration
meant that fewer children were enrolling in rural schools. The 1950s also marked a massive surge in the number of teachers. In the 1948-1949 school year, there were 79,319 teachers, but by 1962-1963 there were 156,193. Due largely to new universities being constructed around the country, these teachers were the most highly trained the Poles had ever experienced.
In order to be able to admit all children to the seven-year schools outlined in 1948, a campaign to expand the school network was undertaken. So many new schools were built (4,834 new classrooms in 1956 alone) that the government could, and indeed did, pass a law mandating the maximum distance between a child's home and their school. For students in grades one to four a school had to be within 3 kilometers of their home, and for students in grades five to seven, within 4 kilometers of their home.
In 1956, a detailed study by the Central Statistical Office declared that every single mentally and physically healthy Polish child received an education. Special schools were set up for deaf, mute
or blind
children. Altogether, up to 5,650,000 students completed primary schooling in Poland between 1945 and 1963.
On July 15, 1961, the Sejm
(polish parliament
) passed an act on the development of the educational system. It introduced two years of compulsory agricultural
or vocational training, officially secularized
all schools and raised the minimum age of graduation from 14 to 15. This reform was gradually implemented from 1962 to 1966.
In the 1920s and 1930s, vocational education did exist on a relatively adequate scale, and a fairly large number of students (110,000 in 1937-1938) attended vocational institutions. However, the standard of education was very low. Many did not have textbook
s, and almost none could offer any sort of environment for students to put into practice what they had learned. Lack of widespread industrialization in Poland at the time meant that many graduates were not guaranteed a job, and only 4.1% attended complete secondary trade schools that allowed them to move on to the university level.
As rapid industrialization was one of the key communist priorities, so too were the vocational schools improved. The Ministries of Education and Industry began to set up new schools. By 1946-1947, there were 60,000 more students enrolled in vocational institutes than in 1937-1938. Standardized textbooks were published on a large scale, the required number of hours of theory was raised to 18, and a number of new subjects based on more modern technological skills were introduced.
In 1949, the Central Agency for Vocational Training was set up to sculpt the curriculum so that the demands of Poland's planned economy
could be met. Existing vocational schools were converted into preparatory vocational schools, basic trade schools that trained skilled labour and vocational secondary schools. Its task completed, the Agency was absorbed into the Ministry of Education in 1956. In the same year the first two-year agricultural vocational schools were built, which offered training for rural students who wished to be farmers. By 1962, there were three thousand of these, with 100,000 students officially enrolled.
The number of students in vocational institutions grew rapidly from the 1930s to the 1960s, with 207,529 students in 1937/1938 and 1,371,400 in 1963/1964.
As almost all of Poland's universities, before World War II, were located in major cities, they were completely destroyed during the war. Poland's German
occupiers, viewing Slavs as an inferior race that were to be made into slave
s, took equipment and literature from Polish universities back to Germany and closed the buildings. Many of them were destroyed by heavy bombing, and 60% of Warsaw University was destroyed during the 1944 uprising
. However, post-secondary education continued in Poland (see underground education in Poland during World War II).
Following the war, the universities were rebuilt and restructured according to Soviet model, i.e. medical, agricultural, economical, engineering and sport faculties became colleges. Theological faculties were removed from state universities, two theological colleges were created in Warsaw. The new government, as part of a plan to strengthen the Polish economy, created many new faculties across the country, including dairy
ing, fishing
, textiles, chemistry
and mechanisation of agriculture, as well as new courses for Marxist
economics
. Many new universities were also constructed. By 1963 the number of universities and colleges in Poland was almost double what it had been in 1938 (73 and 32, respectively). Among these new colleges were ten medical school
s, a type of institution unknown in prewar Poland.
Poland had a considerable number of day students in its universities, an estimated 57.2 students per 10,000 people in 1964, compared to 14.4 in 1938. This put it at fifth place in the Eastern Bloc
(behind the Soviet Union
, Bulgaria
, Czechoslovakia
and Yugoslavia
) and in relation to the capitalist
world, behind the United States
, Canada
, Japan
and Australia
.
After the war people coming from workers' or farmers' families were preferred. The system was cancelled around 1956. Later a system similar to the affirmative action
was implemented, where people coming from workers' or farmers' families (pochodzenie robotniczo-chłopskie) were given preferential treatment in the university admission, usually in the form of extra points in the recruitment process given for the social class
(punkty za pochodzenie). This was partially motivated by the Communists seeing the traditional intelligentsia
as hostile, and trying to build a new educated class more friendly towards them. All kinds of affirmative action were abolished after the fall of communism. After 1968 student protests students had to apply for political certificates, as the result many of them lost their scholarschips.
People's Republic of Poland
The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...
was controlled by the communist state
Communist state
A communist state is a state with a form of government characterized by single-party rule or dominant-party rule of a communist party and a professed allegiance to a Leninist or Marxist-Leninist communist ideology as the guiding principle of the state...
, which provided primary schools, secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
s, vocational education
Vocational education
Vocational education or vocational education and training is an education that prepares trainees for jobs that are based on manual or practical activities, traditionally non-academic, and totally related to a specific trade, occupation, or vocation...
and universities
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
. Education in communist Poland was compulsory from age 7 to 15.
Primary and secondary education
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
was limited. According to official statistics of the time, the number of children who did not attend school in the 1935-1936 school year was 600,000 out of a total of 5,143,100 children of school age. In the 1937-1938 year only 127,100 finished seventh grade, and only 36,400 of these students were from rural
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
areas. All secondary schools, even public
Public education
State schools, also known in the United States and Canada as public schools,In much of the Commonwealth, including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, the terms 'public education', 'public school' and 'independent school' are used for private schools, that is, schools...
ones, charged high tuition fees that many Poles simply could not afford. This meant that only 11.1% of schoolchildren would go on past primary school.
When the communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
government came to power following the World War II, it greatly reformed the education system. In May, 1945, the Ministry of Education drew up a plan outlining an educational system based on several principles: that education in Poland be free, uniform, public and compulsory. It was to be free in that tuition fees would be abolished and a system of scholarship
Scholarship
A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
s, dormitories
Dormitory
A dormitory, often shortened to dorm, in the United States is a residence hall consisting of sleeping quarters or entire buildings primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people, often boarding school, college or university students...
and government assistance be put into place ensuring that every child had equal access to education. It was to be uniform in that the same curriculum
Curriculum
See also Syllabus.In formal education, a curriculum is the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university. As an idea, curriculum stems from the Latin word for race course, referring to the course of deeds and experiences through which children grow to become mature adults...
be taught at every school and that rural institutions be brought up to the same standard as urban
Urban area
An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
ones. It was to be public in that the state would control every educational institution. And it was to be compulsory in that parent
Parent
A parent is a caretaker of the offspring in their own species. In humans, a parent is of a child . Children can have one or more parents, but they must have two biological parents. Biological parents consist of the male who sired the child and the female who gave birth to the child...
s or legal guardian
Legal guardian
A legal guardian is a person who has the legal authority to care for the personal and property interests of another person, called a ward. Usually, a person has the status of guardian because the ward is incapable of caring for his or her own interests due to infancy, incapacity, or disability...
s could be imprisoned
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
if the children in their care did not attend school. The plan also stated that the curriculum had to be so modelled that children would gain a wide base of knowledge, learn to think for themselves, and leave school with the scientific
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
world outlook.
Though the plan was formulated in 1945, it was not be until 1947 that it would be largely put into practice. The acquisition of new territory and the destruction wreaked on the country during the war meant that schools had to be built or rebuilt, and new teachers had to be trained.
The Nazi and Soviet massacre of the prewar Polish intelligentsia, and the emigration of many other intellectuals and skilled people, had left Poland severely educationally lacking. As a result, the Communist program of free and compulsory school education for all, and the establishment of new free universities, received much support. Universities from the lost eastern territories were evacuated to the new western territories: from Wilno
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
to Toruń
Torun
Toruń is an ancient city in northern Poland, on the Vistula River. Its population is more than 205,934 as of June 2009. Toruń is one of the oldest cities in Poland. The medieval old town of Toruń is the birthplace of the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus....
and from Lwów
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
to Wrocław. Many new universities were founded, including the famous Film University of Łódź.
The Communists thus took the opportunity to create a new Polish educated class, taught in an educational system which they controlled; history as well as other sciences had to follow Marxist view as well as be subject to political censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
. In 1948, the curriculum was altered to make communist ideology
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
and theory
Theory
The English word theory was derived from a technical term in Ancient Greek philosophy. The word theoria, , meant "a looking at, viewing, beholding", and referring to contemplation or speculation, as opposed to action...
more central. In addition, various sciences were affected by the communist ideology. Many western books and publications were decreed illegal and possession of any of them could result in fines or even imprisonment. History especially was changed to minimize the role of the events that could undermine the position of the communist government; for example, the Polish-Soviet War
Polish-Soviet War
The Polish–Soviet War was an armed conflict between Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine and the Second Polish Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic—four states in post–World War I Europe...
of 1919-1921 was completely omitted from some history books, and the members of the Polish Government in Exile
Polish government in Exile
The Polish government-in-exile, formally known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in Exile , was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Poland of September 1939, and the subsequent occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, which...
, like Władysław Sikorski, were portrayed as traitors. The science of economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
was also deeply affected, as communist ideology stressed that central planning was always supperior to capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
, and banned works like those of János Kornai
János Kornai
János Kornai , is an economist noted for his analysis and criticism of the command economies of Eastern European communist states.- Biography :...
on the shortage economy
Shortage economy
Shortage economy is a term coined by the Hungarian economist, János Kornai. He used this term to criticize the old centrally-planned economies of the communist states of the Eastern Bloc...
. These acts of censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
would now be considered illegal. Between 1951 and 1953 a large number of pre-war reactionary professors was dismissed from the universities. Among them were Maria
Maria Ossowska
Maria Ossowska was a Polish sociologist and social philosopher.-Life:...
and Stanisław Ossowski, Władysław Tatarkiewicz, Izydora Dąmbska and many of the most prominent Polish scientists of the epoch. The control over art and artists was deepened and with time the Socialist Realism
Socialist realism
Socialist realism is a style of realistic art which was developed in the Soviet Union and became a dominant style in other communist countries. Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style having its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism...
became the only movement that was accepted by the authorities. After 1949 most of works of art presented to the public had to be in line with the voice of the Party and present its propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
.
Schools were also standardized into seven-year primary schools and four-year secondary schools. A large scale campaign to build hundreds of new secondary schools in rural villages, inner city areas, and on the outskirts of towns was also initiated. It was hoped that this would eliminate the educational privilege richer Poles enjoyed and make the system fairer for everyone.
By the 1950s, rapid urbanization
Urbanization
Urbanization, urbanisation or urban drift is the physical growth of urban areas as a result of global change. The United Nations projected that half of the world's population would live in urban areas at the end of 2008....
and the associated internal migration
Human migration
Human migration is physical movement by humans from one area to another, sometimes over long distances or in large groups. Historically this movement was nomadic, often causing significant conflict with the indigenous population and their displacement or cultural assimilation. Only a few nomadic...
meant that fewer children were enrolling in rural schools. The 1950s also marked a massive surge in the number of teachers. In the 1948-1949 school year, there were 79,319 teachers, but by 1962-1963 there were 156,193. Due largely to new universities being constructed around the country, these teachers were the most highly trained the Poles had ever experienced.
In order to be able to admit all children to the seven-year schools outlined in 1948, a campaign to expand the school network was undertaken. So many new schools were built (4,834 new classrooms in 1956 alone) that the government could, and indeed did, pass a law mandating the maximum distance between a child's home and their school. For students in grades one to four a school had to be within 3 kilometers of their home, and for students in grades five to seven, within 4 kilometers of their home.
In 1956, a detailed study by the Central Statistical Office declared that every single mentally and physically healthy Polish child received an education. Special schools were set up for deaf, mute
Speech disorder
Speech disorders or speech impediments are a type of communication disorders where 'normal' speech is disrupted. This can mean stuttering, lisps, etc. Someone who is unable to speak due to a speech disorder is considered mute.-Classification:...
or blind
Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
children. Altogether, up to 5,650,000 students completed primary schooling in Poland between 1945 and 1963.
On July 15, 1961, the Sejm
Sejm
The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....
(polish parliament
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
) passed an act on the development of the educational system. It introduced two years of compulsory agricultural
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
or vocational training, officially secularized
Secularism
Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...
all schools and raised the minimum age of graduation from 14 to 15. This reform was gradually implemented from 1962 to 1966.
Vocational education
Textbook
A textbook or coursebook is a manual of instruction in any branch of study. Textbooks are produced according to the demands of educational institutions...
s, and almost none could offer any sort of environment for students to put into practice what they had learned. Lack of widespread industrialization in Poland at the time meant that many graduates were not guaranteed a job, and only 4.1% attended complete secondary trade schools that allowed them to move on to the university level.
As rapid industrialization was one of the key communist priorities, so too were the vocational schools improved. The Ministries of Education and Industry began to set up new schools. By 1946-1947, there were 60,000 more students enrolled in vocational institutes than in 1937-1938. Standardized textbooks were published on a large scale, the required number of hours of theory was raised to 18, and a number of new subjects based on more modern technological skills were introduced.
In 1949, the Central Agency for Vocational Training was set up to sculpt the curriculum so that the demands of Poland's planned economy
Planned economy
A planned economy is an economic system in which decisions regarding production and investment are embodied in a plan formulated by a central authority, usually by a government agency...
could be met. Existing vocational schools were converted into preparatory vocational schools, basic trade schools that trained skilled labour and vocational secondary schools. Its task completed, the Agency was absorbed into the Ministry of Education in 1956. In the same year the first two-year agricultural vocational schools were built, which offered training for rural students who wished to be farmers. By 1962, there were three thousand of these, with 100,000 students officially enrolled.
The number of students in vocational institutions grew rapidly from the 1930s to the 1960s, with 207,529 students in 1937/1938 and 1,371,400 in 1963/1964.
University
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
occupiers, viewing Slavs as an inferior race that were to be made into slave
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
s, took equipment and literature from Polish universities back to Germany and closed the buildings. Many of them were destroyed by heavy bombing, and 60% of Warsaw University was destroyed during the 1944 uprising
Warsaw Uprising
The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army , to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. The rebellion was timed to coincide with the Soviet Union's Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city and the retreat of German forces...
. However, post-secondary education continued in Poland (see underground education in Poland during World War II).
Following the war, the universities were rebuilt and restructured according to Soviet model, i.e. medical, agricultural, economical, engineering and sport faculties became colleges. Theological faculties were removed from state universities, two theological colleges were created in Warsaw. The new government, as part of a plan to strengthen the Polish economy, created many new faculties across the country, including dairy
Dairy
A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting of animal milk—mostly from cows or goats, but also from buffalo, sheep, horses or camels —for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on a dedicated dairy farm or section of a multi-purpose farm that is concerned...
ing, fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
, textiles, chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
and mechanisation of agriculture, as well as new courses for Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
. Many new universities were also constructed. By 1963 the number of universities and colleges in Poland was almost double what it had been in 1938 (73 and 32, respectively). Among these new colleges were ten medical school
Medical school
A medical school is a tertiary educational institution—or part of such an institution—that teaches medicine. Degree programs offered at medical schools often include Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, Bachelor/Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Philosophy, master's degree, or other post-secondary...
s, a type of institution unknown in prewar Poland.
Poland had a considerable number of day students in its universities, an estimated 57.2 students per 10,000 people in 1964, compared to 14.4 in 1938. This put it at fifth place in the Eastern Bloc
Eastern bloc
The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...
(behind the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
and Yugoslavia
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
) and in relation to the capitalist
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
world, behind the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
After the war people coming from workers' or farmers' families were preferred. The system was cancelled around 1956. Later a system similar to the affirmative action
Affirmative action
Affirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination.-Origins:The term...
was implemented, where people coming from workers' or farmers' families (pochodzenie robotniczo-chłopskie) were given preferential treatment in the university admission, usually in the form of extra points in the recruitment process given for the social class
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
(punkty za pochodzenie). This was partially motivated by the Communists seeing the traditional intelligentsia
Intelligentsia
The intelligentsia is a social class of people engaged in complex, mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them...
as hostile, and trying to build a new educated class more friendly towards them. All kinds of affirmative action were abolished after the fall of communism. After 1968 student protests students had to apply for political certificates, as the result many of them lost their scholarschips.