Parents fear this change for many reasons. The most important ones they mention are an unfavorable change of environment, a change of teachers, and the—not very good, in their opinion—reputation of Lower-Secondary School No. 2. Primary School No. 4 has strict rules, including a ban on using mobile phones on school premises; such rules do not apply at the lower-secondary school. Parents fear the older students’ negative influence on their children, especially since adolescence is a period when young people are susceptible to such influences.

Deputy Mayor Kornel Filipowicz will meet with the parents on Friday, March 23, to talk with them, ask about their concerns and explain all disputed issues.

“We will approach the matter with sensitivity and attention,” says Kornel Filipowicz. “These are the first talks. We want the parents to accept this change, which has been forced by a lack of premises. School No. 4 is overcrowded; next school year it will receive a new building in excellent condition. We certainly will not do anything by force or against the parents, and above all, we will always act with the well-being of our children in mind,” the deputy mayor adds.

The text of the letter to the Mayor of the City, sent to the Lower Silesian Superintendent of Education

We wish to express our position on this matter and our opposition.

The recently introduced education reform provides for education in an eight-year primary school and the abolition of lower-secondary schools.
One of the reform’s aims is to extend primary education to eight years. This is a period during which growing and maturing children learn and are raised within the same school environment and teaching staff, with stable foundations for appropriately directed development. The school building itself, together with all its infrastructure, also forms part of this environment.

We, the parents of students in class VI A, are very concerned about our children’s future education. We do not agree to the transfer, in the 2018/2019 school year, of the seventh- and eighth-grade classes to the still-operating lower-secondary school on Bielska Street. This constitutes a significant change of environment for the children. They will be learning in the same building as young people who have never been part of their school environment—young people at a different stage of emotional development, which consequently brings entirely different educational and disciplinary challenges.

Primary school was not supposed to mean moving seventh- and eighth-grade classes to a building housing a lower-secondary school. In such a situation, the students would be only “nominally” in primary school, while having to attend lessons in a distant building. This certainly was not what the authorities intended when they reformed education in response to social expectations.

We also ask what will happen to the teaching staff. If the children are moved to a distant building, the teachers will be forced to move around constantly. In this situation, their stress and haste will affect the teaching of our children.

We are also troubled by the question of whether the teaching staff will change. The students know their teachers and are attached to them. The teachers, in turn, know their students’ needs, abilities and problems well, which translates into effective work with them. Changing the school’s location will disrupt this process.
We believe that our children’s situation after the reform is introduced is not simple. The three-year lower-secondary curriculum has been condensed into a two-year curriculum for grades seven and eight of primary school. In return, the children were supposed to remain longer in their “old” environment. In our understanding, all children from grades one through eight should study in the same building and remain together for eight years.

We therefore believe that a decision to change the environment in which primary-school children learn, and the resulting failure to implement the principles of the current education reform, should be made in consultation with the parents, as provided for by the documents mentioned at the beginning. However, we have been presented with a fait accompli. No one has informed us or consulted us so far about changes that directly affect our children.

Our concern is to create suitable conditions for the children to study, play and rest in a friendly school. Above all, we care about our children’s safety and preventing educational and disciplinary problems.

We believe that changing the location will not ensure this. We chose Primary School No. 4 in Bolesławiec for our children, and it is regarded as an exemplary institution; it also has a good location. We are satisfied with it. We can understand that an increase in the number of classes may result in split-shift schooling, and we accept that.

With our children’s well-being and the protection of their rights and ours as parents in mind, as well as ensuring that they receive help in adapting to the new school reality, we expect an alternative solution from the Mayor.