AN INTERVIEW WITH MGR EWA NIEWODNICZAŃSKA
Ms Ewa, you are a woman, a municipal councillor and the director of the largest primary school in the city. Is it easy to reconcile all these functions? Which of these roles is the most difficult?
- Being a woman makes it easier for me to fulfil my other roles. A woman's point of view helps me greatly in this. I can reconcile domestic matters with my professional and social responsibilities thanks to the great understanding and help of the wonderful person who is my husband. The atmosphere at home makes me feel safe, and allows me to distance myself from difficult professional and social matters.
- What made you decide to take up the position of school director?
- I had an idea for the school and wanted to put it into practice. Admittedly, the difficult period of economic and political transformation did not make it easier for me to fulfil my intentions, but I wanted to overcome this obstacle as well. I think that, to a great extent, I succeeded.
- How does your school differ from others?
- The “speciality” of our school is ecology and health. These matters are clearly prioritised by exploring ecological content in individual subjects and allocating hours at the director’s disposal to health promotion. I can also give several examples of children learning about these topics in practice. For example, menus featuring healthy food are prepared, and once a week such food is included among the dishes served in the cafeteria. In cooperation with the Centre for Environmental Education in Denmark, tests of the acidity of rainwater are conducted. In spring, the children observe how air has a destructive effect on plants. During the summer, as part of environmental-protection activities, the children cleaned up the grounds of the sailing centre in Krępnica. Competitions are organised and themed newsletters are edited—in short, everything that happens at the school is intended to promote health and ecology.
- What causes the most problems in running the school?
- This may sound trivial, but financial problems, especially debts caused by a lack of funds, concerning payments for energy and water.
All the other matters at the school are going well: I have the pleasure of working with an excellent teaching staff, whose dedication to the school and high qualifications greatly facilitate the implementation of the curriculum. However, the lack of funds dampens our well-being. We found a way to ease the situation by earning money from renting out the hall and selling lunches externally, but this does not solve the problem entirely. With the funds obtained from such “extracurricular” activities, however, we can keep the school properly clean, carry out minor renovations, repairs and refurbishments, buy books for the library and teaching aids.
- You are one of the more active councillors on the Municipal Council. Have you managed to fulfil any of the promises you made to voters?
- Only partially, regarding the present-day II General Secondary School. On the other hand, given the general shortage of funds, the plan to build a school in Zabobrze proved impossible to carry out.
- Until a few years ago, Women’s Day was celebrated in March. What was and is your attitude towards this holiday?
- I was not and am not in favour of singling out women on one day of the year. It was a kind of apology to women for not always treating them properly on the other days of the year. The flower was supposed to be an act of atonement. Instead of a flower, I prefer normality.
- Thank you for the interview, and I wish you a pleasant normality.