The holiday and summer adventure have come to an end. The new 1992/93 school year is just beginning. With the first bell, the classrooms filled with students, including a large group of first-graders. At the threshold of the new school year, let us return once more to the hot days of June, when entrance examinations were held at Bolesławiec secondary schools.
As every year, there were more candidates than places, but primary-school graduates’ interests had changed. Young people chose the fields which, in their opinion, would guarantee them employment in the future. Hence the large number of graduates seeking admission to the Economic Secondary School (87 candidates), the Tailoring Technical School (34), and the Catering Technical School (33). There were also applications to the Mining School Complex (121 candidates), as well as to the Mechanical School Complex (210 admitted) and the Commercial and Services School Complex.
At the W. Broniewski General Secondary School, 150 places awaited primary-school graduates. For the first time in several years, the number of candidates exceeded the number of places by only 4. Everyone who passed the examinations was admitted, including 9 primary-school graduates who were admitted without examinations as winners of provincial-level academic competitions.
When asked about the level of the entrance examinations, the school’s headmaster, Stanisław Małkowski, MA, said: "For many years, very good students have been coming to the school, with a clearly defined goal and specific motivations, but there is also a large group of weak students with undefined interests."
This is reflected in the examinations. This year, about 15 percent of the students received low grades, but a considerable group demonstrated solid knowledge and skills. At the Mining School Complex, 86 candidates passed the examination on their first attempt, but as many as 28 received a low grade in Polish, and 46 students received one in mathematics. The situation is similar at the Vocational School Complex. Of the 152 candidates, 43 received a low grade in Polish and about 50 in mathematics, while 38 primary-school graduates took a resit examination in mathematics, of whom 10 failed it. The examination results at the other schools were similar.
Although this year’s examination topics were considered by both students and examination committees to be suited to the average student’s abilities, the large number of low grades, particularly in such important subjects as the native language and mathematics, is nevertheless disturbing. The quality of the work was unsatisfactory; examination candidates often misinterpreted the topic, many papers consisted mainly of book summaries, and a so-called everythingism prevailed. The lack of knowledge of basic spelling and stylistic rules, as well as poor vocabulary, is a worrying phenomenon. It was not uncommon to find papers containing five spelling mistakes. Sentence construction was not much better either. To illustrate this, here are several examples taken from the papers:
"My hobbies are films...!"
"I like fairy tales because they evoke in me a wonderful feeling of interest..."
"For the Little Prince, four values were astonishing. The first of them was that people go round in circles"
"This book was written so interestingly and uniquely that in some passages I often cried with emotion..."
"A hobby is my passion, which I am most interested in"
"The school reading assignment entitled "Syzyfowe prace", written by Stefan Żeromski, was a fascinating adventure for me and, at the same time, a lesson that I could absorb by feeling it..."
Teachers of Polish will face the problem of making up the deficiencies brought from primary school. This will not be easy, given that young people have no sense of error. Thus, we begin another school year aware that our responsibility for educating the younger generation has increased, because we will have to work in difficult conditions.
On the occasion of the new school year, we wish all Bolesławiec teachers—despite everything—great optimism, many professional successes and fewer worries, and we wish the students only very good and excellent grades.