The Second Will Be First

The preliminary recruitment results show that Director Cezary Czernatowicz currently has one fewer class than planned. At Director Sakowski’s school, 160 candidates applied for 150 available places.

“It is clear that II LO is beginning to compete effectively with I LO for middle-school graduates,” comments Katarzyna Biegasiewicz-Mularczyk, spokesperson for the County Office. “The quantitative analysis indicates that the first stage of recruitment went better for the second high school than for the first.”

However, Biegasiewicz adds that there is one “but”: it concerns the quality of the candidates. “It may be that weaker students want to come to these schools because they have too few recruitment points,” the spokesperson explains. “That is why we will not learn the final recruitment results until the end of the school year,” she adds.

Mirosław Sakowski disputes this way of presenting the recruitment situation. “Based on my experience, we will not lose anyone,” he says. “Last year we admitted 159 students with an average of 60 recruitment points, which was a very high result. I am sure that the best students will come to us this year as well,” he adds.

The Student Is Our Master

Competing for students is standard because the student has become a customer who is offered what is most attractive at the school: good computer laboratories, competent teachers, modern Orlik sports facilities, interesting extracurricular activities carried out as part of various projects, and many other things.

The number of children is declining, and if a school does not attract enough of them, the director will have to begin reducing staff positions or employees’ hours. The fear that a school will not achieve good recruitment results is an additional source of stress for teachers. Lower incomes or the prospect of possible dismissal certainly do not create a good atmosphere in the workplace.

When Mirosław Sakowski became director of II Liceum Ogólnokształcące, he said that his task also included ensuring work for his teachers. As a manager, he had several ideas for making the school’s offering more attractive.

“The second high school had potential, excellent teachers and good facilities. What we lacked were victories in academic olympiads and competitions,” Sakowski recounts. “We focused on these activities, and when teachers and students began achieving success, we could talk about it publicly and promote it,” the director adds.

One of his first ideas was the “Get to Know II LO” program. The high school hosted a series of sports competitions aimed at middle-school students. The director made use of the Orlik located next to the high school. Later, the school established the Michał Twerda Gallery, named after the painter and longtime teacher at the school. The gallery regularly hosts vernissages by artists from Bolesławiec.

From September 2013, the institution is to have a lift for students with disabilities. This will make it the first upper-secondary school adapted for people with disabilities.

Also from September, the high school will launch the Interactive Science Center “Science Lab” — a project created by high-school students that won first place in a competition organized by the University of Economics. Students will present experiments from the natural sciences, especially physics, to peers from various schools. The money earned by the ISC is to be allocated to teacher bonuses, student scholarships and the improvement of other science laboratories.

A scholarship offer was also a good way to invite the best students to the institution. Every middle-school olympiad winner with a high grade average will receive a scholarship at II LO. All these activities were promoted in the media, which clearly brought Sakowski’s school recruitment success.

Advertising: The Driving Force Behind Education?

Director Sakowski speaks openly about advertising the achievements of II Liceum’s students and teachers. He sends information to all local media outlets, but, as he says, no one regularly publishes it for free.

“I am not advertising myself,” he explains. “Only what is happening at the school. Thanks to this advertising, we are changing the high school’s former image and presenting its strengths.”

Cezary Czernatowicz, the director of the first high school, did not want to use paid advertising. Only immediately before recruitment did he decide to pay for an advertisement. It is possible that the director of a school with a rich tradition and excellent student results in olympiads and competitions failed to notice that more intensive and effective information about the school was essential.

No one at I LO answered our questions. We asked Director Czernatowicz where and how many times, apart from two pages in the newspaper, he had advertised the school for payment, and whether, in the director’s opinion, advertising was necessary for the school.

Judging by the preliminary recruitment to both schools, the advertising activities brought Director Sakowski the intended results. His school is better known and more attractive to middle-school students than Director Czernatowicz’s institution.

One can, of course, object to paid advertising for a school. But in that case, it is better to find a good way to present its attractiveness to a wider group of students for free.

(information: ii)