– An eight-person delegation from the Construction School Complex came to me, asking for help and protesting against the intention to close the school – said P. Roman. – The conversation was long. We have wonderful young people in Bolesławiec who are able to use arguments perfectly rather than emotions.
Later, the mayor of Bolesławiec was visited by a delegation from the Bolesławiec Voluntary Labour Corps (operating precisely at the “Construction School”), which also spoke about the threats connected with the planned reorganisation of county education. As OHP representatives argued, if the Corps were scattered among at least three educational institutions, it would be much more difficult to reach these young people.
– I formulated a thesis that is not new, but I would like to repeat it: it would be a much better solution if the principle “One city, one administrator” applied here – stated P. Roman. – First, from the point of view of the Municipality’s financial security, there is no threat here. Second, this model is implemented in more than sixty cities in Poland. These are the largest cities, but also smaller ones – cities of our size.
And there is no such problem there. In those cities, the president is responsible for all education, from kindergarten to the final secondary-school examination.
– Of course, another threat is added to this: the intention to abolish lower secondary schools – the president continued developing his argument. – If this happens, around one-third of the children will return to rural schools, because they will have eight grades. This will not increase employment in the Municipality of Bolesławiec, and if it does, only to a minor extent. But in our case, abolishing lower secondary schools over three years may mean that 100 teachers will have to be dismissed [podkreślenie – „ii”]. What is more, the third grades of lower secondary schools will become the first grades. And again, one-third of the students will go to county schools. I believe that assigning the educational task to counties – and counties in Poland are weak, inefficient, have no money and do not invest – will not produce good results when it comes to facilities and equipment. If this were a city with county rights, we might be able to significantly limit the number of teachers made redundant.
As P. Roman explained, there is one more issue on top of all this. In 2020, two cohorts of graduates will enter post-primary schools (because if the phasing-out of lower secondary schools becomes a fact, there will no longer be post-lower-secondary schools): the last cohort of lower secondary-school graduates and the first cohort of primary-school graduates. – This means that the number of students in post-primary schools will double, which raises another question: are county schools prepared for this? I claim that they are not – said the president.
He added: – Someone may say that the president dreams of expanding his empire,
but we are dealing with a situation in which this system works in more than sixty cities. The President of Jelenia Góra Marcin Zawiła says that he is not afraid of a revolution in education. The same applies to Lubin. Over the past few years, Lubin County has transferred many responsibilities to the City of Lubin, including post-lower-secondary education. But if there is no agreement to transfer all education to the City of Bolesławiec, our second proposal is this: the City will assume responsibility for the children at the special school. We can undertake that teaching conditions will change radically over the next few years.
The president also referred to the county authorities’ suggestion that the City could transfer another building to the county government (we wrote about this, among other things, in the article Stormy budget session). – The problem is that we do not know to what extent the reform involving the abolition of lower secondary schools will be lasting. What will happen if, in a few years, another governing team starts reversing it? What responsibility will fall on the Bolesławiec authorities if it turns out that the city lacks buildings? We can transfer a building for a special school, but on the condition that the Municipality of Bolesławiec runs the institution – concluded P. Roman.
We will return to this topic.