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POLISH PERCEPTION OF THE IDEA OF EDUCATION THROUGHOUT LIFE (1971-2011)
R. Tomaszewski
In the 1970s, the majority of education research reflected a cycle of international conferences devoted to adult education that took place in the period between 1949 and 1972. The notion of lifelong education which was stated at the Montreal Conference (1960) subsequently became part of international education research. These ideas became popular in Poland. However, it should be noted that they were anticipative, because they emerged before the technological breakthroughs of the 1970s-1980s. In Poland, this took place against the background of enhanced industrialization — the final impulse of the development of heavy industry — and openness to the West under the rule of Edward Gierek. In 1978, Prof. Czeslaw Kupisiewicz1 summarized various international expert research and assessments regarding educational strategies.
Ideas about lifelong education (education throughout life) and innovative education for the future were generally recognized in Poland. These were reflected in Polish publications on education in 1973 (Prof. Ian Szczepanski) and 1989 (Prof. Czeslaw Kupisiewicz). These ideas were found in government declarations, in the academic community, and in educational practice. In those years, continuous education centers were established. In the period from 1975 to the breakthrough year of 1990, the number of institutions of this type totaled 54 with about 40,000 adult students. These centers also provided methodological consultations to other adult education institutions. However, between 1977 and 1987, the number of people involved in lifelong education in schools decreased by 57%, and those in higher education institutions by 62%. Moreover, due to problems with transport and social infrastructure participants of adult education were mainly residents of cities2. Attempts at distance learning (for example, by Agricultural Technical TV or the Radio TV Teachers' University) were ineffective for technical reasons. After 1980, reform of the lifelong education system which took into account the specifics of adult learners and an attempt to correlate it with the labor market was planned. This reform was abandoned in 1987 due to an economic downturn.3
In the 1970s, teachers' advanced training centers and Third Age Universities were established in Poland. As early as at that time, the idea of “education throughout life” was applied both to the upgrading of professional skills and education as an end in itself. However, both forms were organized under the patronage of state universities. Before 1989, the state controlled all forms of education throughout life for ideological reasons. Against this background, a debate between society and the state regarding the establishment of an Open
1 Kupisiewicz C. Przemiany edukacyjne w swiecie. Warszawa, 1978.
2 Wujek T. Oswiata dorostych. Stan i kierunki przebudowy. Warszawa; Krakow, 1989, pp. 8-9 (thematic report No. 27).
3 Potturzycki J. Oswiata dorostych w Polsce - stan i kierunki przebudowy. Warszawa; Krakow, 1989, p. 11 (thematic report No. 26). The main feature of the public education system was the dominance of vocational or advanced training which was associated with obtaining formal rights or certificates for professional activities.
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University started after 1982 . In contrast to Third Age Universities whose creation was originally initiated by physicians, the idea of open education in the Polish People's Republic was developed by university professors. It targeted people of all ages who wanted to expand their knowledge regardless of their professional or extra-professional motivations. The Open University was established in Poland as a non-state educational institution in 1986, but the Communist authorities proactively blocked its operation for ideological reasons. At present, there are attempts to return to this idea, but in fact it has been implemented in a completely different form which Professor Boguslawa Golebniak referred to as "random, temporary learning communities emerging on an ad hoc basis", within the system of formal higher education (universities)1 2.
The most appreciated and most desirable form of education in Poland has been higher education received in an academic higher education institution (at best at a state university). It remains a secondary question whether this takes place immediately after leaving secondary school, i.e. between the ages of 20-26 years, or as part of continuous education in the form of the academic higher education of adults. I believe that this myth has emerged due to the limited accessibility of the former higher education system which provided training opportunities to only 10% of high school graduates (before 1991), as well as due to the belief that a higher education diploma remained a credential protecting against unemployment which continued to exist after 1990. Indeed, before 2000, unemployment among Poles with higher education was only observed in isolated cases.
Before 1990, about 500,000 students studied in 91 Polish academic higher education institutions, including those participating in lifelong education. Currently, there are as many as 450 higher education institutions, including more than 300 non-state ones. In total they train more than 2 million students, of whom 60-70% study in the framework of lifelong education. The myth of higher education and the status of intellectual was quite unambiguous before 2000, and, in my opinion, it motivated Poles for self-development in a very positive way. Paradoxically, it has substantially weakened after the Bologna Declaration was signed in 1999 and put into effect in 2004. The majority of Polish professors believe that as a tool for the introduction of the American model of a (mediocre) higher education institution into the European tradition, the Bologna Declaration has caused serious damage to the university idea3. Before 1990, 20-30% of students in higher education institutions in Poland were distance students in the lifelong education system; now this figure is 70%. As a result, the majority of higher education institutions were “pushed” into pursuing the goals of lifelong education. This is facilitated by the Bologna system with its dominating first stage of higher education, as well as by the trend of a sharp reduction of the length of programs for post-graduate education, often to six months.
1 Ibid, pp. 59-60. At that time, this meant the transfer to Poland of the British model of the Open University (Wesotowska E. A. Brytyjski Uniwersytet Otwarty. Stan aktualny. // Kultura i Edukacja, 1993, No. 3, pp. 69-77).
2 Got^bniak B. D. Poszukiwanie - refleksyjnosC - dialektyczne uczenie si§. Nowe praktyki edukacyjne w szkole wyzszej. //Innowacje w edukacji akademickiej. Szkolnictwo wyzsze w procesie zmiany. /Red. nauk. J. Piekarski i D. Urbaniak - Zaj^c. todz, 2010, p. 257.
3 Hejnicka - Bezwinska T. Szanse i zagrozenia zwi^zane z integraj roznych rodzajow wiedzy o edukacji. //Innowacje w edukacji akademickiej..., pp. 27, 29 and 32-34.
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Until 1990, and to some extent until 2000, the Polish higher education system (and the status of graduate) provided an opportunity to become a professional for life, which to some degree is in conflict with the idea of lifelong learning and education throughout life. Currently, this is a myth, although a very attractive one. Higher education is currently the most developed segment of the Polish market of educational services. Virtually the majority of private higher education institutions are lifelong education institutions with the predominance of adult students (up to 90%). The 1990s in Poland saw avalanche-like growth of nonstate educational institutions and educational centers. Particularly rapid was the development of higher education institutions or private lifelong education institutions that catered for the need for professional retraining. As part of this trend state continuous education centers have been privatized. The diversity of organizational forms of small private businesses offering educational services can currently give an impression of organizational chaos. Both secondary schools for adults that often rely on finance under the "Human Capital" program and some higher education institutions are highly flexible. These institutions are willing to undertake various learning tasks, while regarding a learner or a student as a sort of customer.
The medium-sized town of Slupsk, which before 1990 had just one continuous education center, currently has five such centers all of which are privatized. The local university (which was the only one before 1996), in 1996-2010 faced competition from three private higher education institutions, including an academic one. This competition was mainly about offering lifelong education to weekend adult students. The region has also developed educational institutions specialized in self-development education, such as the Third Age University. However, a characteristic feature of the regional market of educational services is education in areas of so-called book knowledge. This refers to the predominance of low-cost private educational institutions (with small capital) driven by profit1. I believe that quality is still not a determinant in the Polish market of educational services which attempts to carry out tasks of lifelong education. This market is overwhelmingly focused on profit rather than on the implementation of educational ideas contained in international or Polish programs, from educational reports in the 1970s to the modern European program "Human Capital". Prof. Alexander Nalaskowski refers to such market as bazaar2. Statistics may create a bias that Poland is a knowledge-based society. The number of adults seeking to get higher education is impressive, but this is mainly in the areas of humanities (pedagogy, political science, English philology) or economics (management) and to a lesser extent in law (mainly administration). Some social and occupational groups, such as nurses, teachers, administration officers and employees of paramilitary entities currently dominate non-stationary education programs for adults. Thus, higher education in Poland continues to play the key role in the system of lifelong education, both in terms of the viability of the above mentioned myth of higher education and due to the high number of adult students (70%), and in terms of the increasingly rising number of young people who join higher education programs (currently up to 60%), with forecasts showing that it will reach 75% to make
"... operational diploma factories that are designed for profit and exploitation" as defined by Professor Zygmunt Lempicki.
2 Nalaskowski A. Widnokr^gi edukacji. Krakow, 2002, p. 409.
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academic education universal . However, this trend, which is very pronounced in the academic year 2011/2012, does not mean that Poland is a knowledge-based society. The Minister of Science and Higher Education, Prof. Barbara Kudrycka, popularizes this image as a symbol of the chance Poland has to take a worthy place in civilization. However, the concept of the knowledge-based society is both vague and ambiguous. This can be described and understood in two ways: (a) as drawing on natural and technical sciences, which is allegedly designed to lead to the rapid transformation of the economy and society into a “mega-technopark” in which Poland has become a European mutation of Silicon Valley; and (b) as complete dissolution of Polish society in the global and multi-dimensional civilization of the West through lifelong education (first of all in technological, economic and communication terms). However, in both these senses this is the wishful thinking of the central administration which is partially based on “technophobia” and “techno-ethics” and that make a fetish of technological development identified with progress. Only those characteristics of progress that are identical to technological or economic progress are noticed, while human factors and culture are overlooked. In this context, lifelong education cannot assume the attributes of production and a quick payback. Therefore information is taken for knowledge, and vocational training is identified with education. Equipment cannot think for us, even if it is super sophisticated. It can only help us. I believe that the Polish scientific and to some extent educational authorities are seeking to put forward an ideal slogan of building a knowledge-based society, provided that it is technological knowledge. Socio-economic and production transmissions are identified with polytechnic higher education institutions, whose participation in lifelong education in Poland is marginal.
The most common form of additional education is receiving qualification at courses outside educational institutions. Virtually every Polish town with the population of at least 15,000 has training centers that offer such courses. These institutions are very flexible and apt to undertake any task on a commercial basis. This is also done by some secondary or higher vocational schools, especially nonstate ones. Although the level of educational services provided in Poland is assessed by the quality control authorities, I think that gaps in the economic market game do not facilitate overall high quality, regardless of formal acknowledgment in the form of certificates. We can also mention additional training for large groups of employees, where new qualification requirements, such as a secondary or higher educational background, are imposed administratively. As a result, a large group of Poles receive additional education under university programs designed for the employed in a proactive manner, combining their own interests and aspirations with the anticipation of the possible enhancement of requirements by employers. The long-established professional development centers which have proved to be less competitive against private educational firms play an increasingly smaller role in the implementation of various forms of additional education in Poland. Mediumsized or even large private firms willingly organize refresher courses for their employees in Poland. On the one hand, this represents an investment in the local (corporate) human capital, and on the other, it gives a sense of stable employment for participants of the internal system of staff improvement. 1
1 Woznicki J. Model publicznej szkoty wyzszej i jej otoczenia systemowego. Warszawa, 1998,
p. 30.
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After 1990, opportunities for receiving education as an end in itself have increased, regardless of the fact that they were also subject to commercialization and pressures of the market where knowledge is treated as a commodity. Due to the economic circumstances it became impossible to return to the open university idea, but I believe that formal circumstances, such as the availability of a school diploma as an absolute prerequisite for entering a higher education institution, were and remain an equally important reason for this in Poland. Therefore, the majority of adult Poles enter secondary or higher schools for the sake of education. A disadvantage of this path of lifelong education is that certain strict program standards and formal requirements must be observed, despite the fact that participants treat it as a hobby and do it for their own development. However, supplementary results include a diploma, formal qualifications or skills and competencies; however, this trend inevitably relies on a compromise between one's interest or abilities understood as an antonym of the performance and school-based organization of such education. This is in conflict with one of the main principles of education as an end in itself: the individualization of ways of gaining knowledge and ideas of co-participation in building educational programs. Many higher education institutions consider education as an end in itself as a form of entertainment and fun that should not necessarily lead to an outcome in the form of productive knowledge and adapt their offering for the above group of students who are interested in education as such.
Thus, a new type of student of higher education institutions has appeared. It is diverse in terms of age, intelligence and life strategies. For Polish academic education this is the so-called “non-traditional student”. He may not be a partner to a professor or an associate in generating scientific knowledge, but he remains a self-fulfilling individual. This may be expressed by the following metaphor: “A self-taught person comes to a higher education institution, so why would he need a school diploma and follow academic tradition?” — “Why have any formalities, levels of education or even diplomas?”.
Prof. Ewa Kurnatowicz sees formal elements such as the “school diploma” and other certificates as mere barriers to education throughout life. Therefore the economic utility of lifelong learning for economic growth and productivity or “employability” competes with a play of studies or a play of freedom.
The impulse of globalization, along with the postmodernist imperative in Polish pedagogy, has led to a number of complications in adult education practice. Cost effectiveness is currently competing with the humanitarian aspect of personality development throughout life both in Polish academic pedagogy of the second decade of the 21st century and in the practice of professional redevelopment or economic activation. The dilemma of extending the time of professional activity of Poles (as claimed by the government) to 67 years in 2012 is parallel to flaws in the field of lifelong education. Poles live increasingly longer, so they will have to be professionally active in the competitive labor market for a longer period of time. They will also receive pensions for longer. Being active in culture might more likely become a challenge at the sunset of life than having a pension. Both the long run of productive activity and subsequent activity or passivity in maintaining one's personality in good shape will inevitably force us to refer to the strategy of education throughout life. The dilemma of whether economics and productivism or humanism will dominate Polish pedagogy after 2011 remains unsolved.
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