PLN 300 per pupil in Bolesławiec primary schools. Will your child benefit?

In December 2021, PLN 798,600 was added to the city budget to implement a programme intended to modernise education in Bolesławiec primary schools. Future Laboratories is an educational initiative implemented by the Ministry of Education and Science in cooperation with the GovTech Centre at the Chancellery of the Prime Minister. The project aims to equip primary schools with technology enabling pupils to develop future skills in the so-called STEAM fields (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics), while making lessons more interdisciplinary and innovative.

For now, Future Laboratories are used in extracurricular clubs, meaning not by all pupils

The process of bringing modernity to our schools will probably be a long one. The tried-and-tested short quizzes used to test knowledge, lectures, copying from the board—by hand, of course—and overwhelming pupils with homework are still commonplace, while the private-tutoring market is thriving. The internet and the phones and tablets connected to it are seen as evil because they are not used during lessons as part of the educational process. Reading set texts and taking exam-style tests on them, as well as chasing good grades for their own sake: this is everyday school life.

It will be a long time before all teachers learn to operate and program the purchased SkriBots (robotics kits allowing users to build an educational robot independently), SkriKit blocks (educational construction kits for learning mechanics and basic construction elements), 3D pens and printers, and Lego Spikes (equipment and programming using a “drag and drop” method in a language based on Scratch).

Nevertheless, Primary Schools Nos. 1 (Jana Pawła II Street), 2 (Słowackiego Street) and 4 (Bielska Street) have coped quite well with the initial stage of implementing Future Laboratories. The purchased equipment is used mainly in interest clubs or for extracurricular projects.

Małgorzata Giedrojć-Sypień from Primary School No. 1 (PLN 184,800) reported that a film club and a technology club had been established at the school. There, pupils learn to use VR goggles and view 3D models; with the help of a virtual cube (a mini-controller), they also learn about different types of structures in 3D. A film studio is being prepared. Currently, around 200 pupils at Primary School No. 1 use Future Laboratories, and by the end of the school year all 640 pupils are expected to use it. Primary School No. 1 documents classes held as part of Future Laboratories on its website. Ultimately, all Years 4–8 are to print in 3D; for now, such classes are attended by Year 8 pupils.

At Primary School No. 2 (PLN 152,400), headteacher Irena Kołodyńska says activities began in October 2022 because delivery of the equipment had been delayed and classrooms had to be prepared for this type of lesson. An oscilloscope was purchased for the physics room. It will only be used later in physics lessons, and only in Year 8. The IT teacher uses the self-assembly blocks in lessons. Virtual-reality goggles were also purchased, among other things for science lessons. The IT and physics teacher has already completed training in this area. The children do not use them yet. The school television station began operating in November. Thirteen pupils are interested in these classes. Many more children want to sew and cook, so rotating classes were prepared for them in three groups of 12.

It is similar at Primary School No. 4 (PLN 198,600). Maria Subik described the clubs in which pupils are already using the purchased equipment: six pupils attend machine-sewing classes, nine attend IT and programming classes, 10 attend practical and technical “workshop” classes, and 40 attend the school choir (microphones, a voice recorder and a camera). In IT lessons, 180 pupils from Years 7 and 8 are learning to program 3D printers, while in biology lessons, Year 7 pupils (32 pupils) used the purchased equipment during classes about the human body.

Anna Goździk, headteacher of Primary School No. 3, told us that since September 2022 pupils from every class group in Years 1 to 8—370 pupils in total—had been using the equipment purchased for the Laboratory. All teachers had also been trained to conduct classes with the new equipment.

This answer immediately made us suspicious. We considered it practically impossible and checked it. When we asked the school’s pupils how many times teachers had used the equipment since September and in which lessons, we learned that younger pupils had used the 3D pens. The pupils had not seen the 3D printers in lessons, nor had they seen the purchased SkriBot, SkriKit blocks or Lego Spikes. Once, in a lesson, a teacher showed them a sundial already printed on a 3D printer. They said it was very small. The headteacher was supposed to send a correction to her information; we have not received it yet.

Edyta Górczak the headteacher of Primary School No. 5 (PLN 162,300), apparently relied on the promised collective information about the Laboratories, which the head of the Education Department had promised to provide. We are waiting for that information too.

Equipment worth several thousand used as a storage cupboard in “No. 3”

While speaking with pupils, we learned that “No. 3” also has a laboratory fume cupboard: an extraction cabinet intended for work with various chemical substances. If its specially designed structure is connected to a properly functioning ventilation system, it prevents harmful substances from escaping. This equipment costs between PLN 9,000 and PLN 12,000.

The school received the fume cupboard as a competition prize. Unfortunately, the equipment is being used as a storage cupboard in a room that was intended to be a laboratory for chemistry (biology and physics) classes.

The headteacher wrote to us that: A laboratory fume cupboard is used to conduct experiments involving combustion. Currently, such experiments are presented to pupils using multifunctional monitors, which are installed in every classroom. We do not conduct this type of experiment live—that is, the children watch a film instead of carrying out the experiment—because we do not have facilities for safely storing laboratory equipment, especially chemical compounds.

What do teachers get from Future Laboratories?

They certainly get plenty of enjoyment if they like change and challenges. They have a modern workplace and the prestige that comes with it, and can also increase their skills. An added benefit is the joy and satisfaction of successful, interesting and creative lessons. There is also something a teacher will not receive: a pay rise for the effort put into improving their skills. Frustration may be added to the package. They will receive the same salary for teaching children using a SkriBot and 3D printer—or even a lower one if they are young and just starting work—as a colleague who asks pupils to connect her laptop to the projector because she cannot do it herself and considers a lecture illustrated with PowerPoint slides the height of technology. Young people would say that “motivation sucks” in such circumstances.

Dreaming of the school of the future

In December 2021, Beata Sulska (then Head of the Social Department, responsible for education in the city; education is now handled by the Education Department—editor’s note), while reporting on this wonderful project, described the opportunities Future Laboratories offered teachers and pupils.

“A Polish teacher, Teacher of the Year, who gives an example of a Polish-language lesson called ‘Mathematics in Art’: these are classes about the biography and life of Leonardo da Vinci,” the department head said about the opportunities offered by Future Laboratories. “In these lessons, it will be possible to use objects designed by pupils, visualised in 3D and printed,” Beata Sulska added.

However, we know what the reality is in primary schools: overcrowded classrooms; since February, the problem of integrating and teaching children from Ukraine after accepting women fleeing the war; burned-out teachers; a shortage of psychologists and educational counsellors; a lack of specialists for children with disabilities; and, finally, ordinary staff shortages. Nevertheless, we hope that all this modern equipment will not remain locked in boxes or share the fate of the laboratory fume cupboard won in a competition and transformed into a cupboard for odds and ends in “No. 3”.