Polish Educational System Response Towards Immigrant Children’s Presence at Public Schools

Abstract

Since 2001, when the Ministry of Education started to collect data on foreigners attending Polish public primary and secondary schools, their number has increased by tenfold, reaching 42 000 in the school year 2019/2020. The article demonstrates how the Polish educational system has responded to immigrant children’s presence. First, it presents instruments targeted at children with migration experience, which Polish authorities have over the years implemented into law regulating schooling. The second part of the article provides an overview of research on the situation of children with migrant experience learning in public schools. The conclusion is not optimistic: Poland did not have and still does not have a strategic vision of national educational policy encompassing such pupils.