The Student Action Youth Organization called on the Minister of Education Barbara Nowacka to resign on Tuesday. According to founder Paul Mrozek, the minister wasted 2 years in office, making political decisions, not with students in mind. The press conference was held at Primary School 103 in Warsaw.
Mrozek left no uncertainty as to the assessment of minister Nowacka. “Two years, which we must say honestly and openly, have been wasted”, he said. According to the organisation, the minister made decisions with «political will, not with respect to health, life, but above all with respect to the safety and everyday life of young people».
In particular, they criticised the introduction of optional wellness education, which they felt was “the victim of political games during the presidential campaign”. They besides criticise restrictions on home tasks and ongoing discussions on teacher overtime.
No consequence for 7 months
Mrozek stressed that the Student Action is “open for dialogue, for discussion with the Ministry of National Education, but for 7 months any consequence from the MEN is inactive missing”. He accused the ministry of «covering itself by being very busy».
“If there is no time for young people (...) who devote their regular lives to fighting for education, who is the Ministry of National Education?” he asked rhetorically. For this reason, the organisation demands that “at last there should be an expert in the ministry – an expert in the function of a minister, an expert in the function of deputy ministers as well as those who operate in the MEN”.
MEN: We met with thousands of students
Deputy Education Minister Catherine Lubnauer responded to the appeal, emphasizing the engagement of the ministry. “I think we met due to the fact that all the representatives of the management were at these meetings, they were thousands of young people”, she told journalists. MEN organised circular tables in all 16 voivodships with the participation of thousands of young people, mainly from secondary schools.
Lubnauer admitted that she peculiarly remembered the problem of the students of technicians. «I remember the most 1 thing I have in my mind. This is simply a question of technicians' students regarding the number of hours a week," she said. In 1 method class, students had 38 hours a week. “We will do everything we can to reduce this number of hours a bit”, she promised.
Proposal for an educational summit
The Student Action wants to call “Educational Summit” over political divisions. "We are coming up with an initiative to organize the Educational Summit over all political divisions. We are talking about the presidential side, the government, but above all about the social side, which is besides the school side – about students, teachers, parents”, Mrozek announced.
The inspiration is last week's medical summits, which Mrozek noted, “showed that the president and the Prime Minister are not full able to work together, but that summits took place”. The organization will send letters to the Chancellery of the President, Chancellery of the Prime Minister and MEN asking for a summit.
The Ministry of National Education did not respond to PAP's request for comment on the appeal for resignation of Minister Nowacka.
Note: This article was created utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI).
