For several months, education departments in district offices have been paralysed. Officials are drawing up lists and informing students, who have been confused by media reports. District employees ask people to treat press and television reports with considerable caution. For example, recent reports claiming that some districts have already paid scholarships or are collecting applications are untrue.
Few people will receive the money
It is already known that a student will not receive the announced 350 zlotys at all. After Poland received the money, it turned out that Lower Silesian Voivodeship would receive 550 scholarships, each worth 200 zlotys. There are around 16,000 students in the voivodeship, so competition for funding may be fierce. Calculations show that Bolesławiec District will receive between 8 and 15 scholarships.
There may be no money at all
By 10 October, the Ministry of Economy and Labour must sign agreements with marshal’s offices so that students and pupils can receive the money. Otherwise, the funds transferred to Poland by the European Union will remain in the budget.
Representatives of district and marshal’s offices point to the ministry as responsible for the confusion. It failed to issue the appropriate regulations and extended the procedures, which in turn complicated the entire matter.
The agreements are missing
To understand that, as usual, the Poles are to blame, it is worth learning how money from the European Union was supposed to reach a Polish pupil or student. The EU’s only role was to transfer the money to Poland, which has of course already happened. From that point, the ministry was supposed to sign agreements with marshal’s offices. The offices were then supposed to announce a competition for districts for projects distributing the funds. Only after the best projects had been selected was the money supposed to flow to district offices and from there to young people. This obviously has not happened because the appropriate agreements do not yet exist.
At the turn of July and August, marshal’s offices did receive drafts of the funding agreements and submitted several comments, but the ministry has not yet responded. Reports from various sources suggest that ministry officials will not resolve the matter and will not meet the deadline. And then there will be no scholarships.
Amid the many conflicting reports, one thing is certain: pupils have lost out. September expenses—that is, those incurred on school supplies and the purchase of textbooks—will no longer be reimbursed.