Opinion of the Coalition for the Salvation of the Polish School on the Regulation on wellness Education
date: February 20, 2025 Editor: Anna
Ladies and gentlemen,
in connection with the publication by MEN of a fresh regulation on wellness education dated at 5.02.2025 and the announcement of a public consultation, we send an analysis of the regulation carried out by experts of the Coalition for Polish Salvation Schools and our opinion, in which we point out that wellness education does not carry out a legislative delegation, and even conflicts with it.
Secretariat of the Coalition for the Salvation of the Polish School
Catherine Marek
Warsaw, 14.02.2025
OPINION
concerning the draft regulation of the Minister of Education of 5 February 2025 on the way of school education and the scope of content concerning cognition about the sexual life of a person, on the principles of conscious and liable parenthood, on the value of a family, on prenatal life and on the methods and means of conscious procreation contained in the programme's general education1 (List 61)
The statutory delegation, which entitles the Minister of Education to issue the title regulation, is the Act of 7 January 1993 on household Planning, Protection of the Human Fetal and Conditions of Acceptability of Abortion (Journal of Laws of 2022 item 1575)2.
Article 4(3) of the abovementioned Act provides:
The Minister competent for Education and Education shall, by means of a regulation, find the way in which the school education and content referred to in paragraph 1 contained in the programming basis of general education is taught and shall introduce the subject substance referred to in paragraph 1 into the teacher education and improvement system.
Paragraph 1 of that Article states in turn:
Knowledge about the sexual life of a person, the principles of conscious and liable parenthood, household values, prenatal life and methods and means of conscious procreation is introduced into school curricula.
Thus, Article 4(1) lists the compulsory content of school education in the field of sex education. Their selection determines the pro-family nature of teaching. Both conditions – the thematic scope and the pro-family nature – meet the classes presently being conducted in schools called household upbringing (hereinafter: WEDZ).
The proposed regulation of 5 February 2025 introduces fresh classes called wellness education to schools in place of the WEDZ. The content of wellness education is included in 2 parallel draft regulations on changes in the programme basis:
- Regulation of the Minister of Education amending the Regulation on the basis of pre-school curricula and the basis of general education for primary school, including for pupils with average or crucial disabilities, general education for the sector-specific first-cycle school, general education for the peculiar school for staff and general education for the post-secondary school (project dated 29.10.2024, list 403).
- Regulation of the Minister of Education amending the regulation on the basics of general education for general advanced school, method school and second-cycle (project dated 29.10.2024, list 414).
The analysis of the above-mentioned draft regulations on the content of wellness education shows that they do not implement a statutory delegation.
These contents do not supply information on the principles of conscious and liable parenthood, depreciate the value of the family, ignore the question of procreative wellness and the value of life in the prenatal phase, and present the subject of human sexuality selectively. The draft regulation of 5 February 2025 is so contrary to the draft regulations setting out the programme basis for general education in health.
EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
1. no of the objectives of training defined in the school curriculum correspond to any of the objectives of the statutory delegation
The direction of implementation of the programme basis of individual educational activities defines the objectives assigned to them. The proposed wellness education objectives for primary and secondary schools relate mainly to wellness values, disregarding the value of household and parenthood. The student will be prepared to execute social roles, however, the evidence (quote) "responsible to execute social roles and build relationships based on values of health, dignity, respect and tolerance at all stages of his life." tells us to uncertainty whether these authors of the fresh program base include roles carried out in the household (the roles of husband, wife, mother, father), since there is no mention of building relationships based on love. Similarly, the student is to be “ready to take on duties that affect belonging to the community, to advance healthy lifestyle attitudes and wellness work among the members of the communities to which he belongs.” However, there is no separation of the basic community, which is the household and the student's preparation for building it. The analysis of the objectives shows that the ministry, as the programming basis for wellness education, was not intended to implement the recommendations of the statutory delegation.
2. The subject of human sexual life in the designed basis of wellness education is mainly focused on the physical and intellectual sphere, which determines the selective implementation of statutory content
This subject is represented at each educational level in section VII. Mature and VIII. Sexual health. However, he points out the deficiency of integral treatment of human sexuality and the separation of its physical sphere from mental, social and ethical spheres. The student does not receive essential information, e.g. on the consequences of early sexual initiation, early motherhood, and the subject of sexually transmitted diseases is only optional in Class VII-VIII. The only condition for co-existence according to the authors of the program basis is conscious consent (SP VII-VIII, VIII.3); however, there is no mention of lasting bond, love or responsibility. The household context is thus omitted.
3. The wellness education task omits the content mentioned in the Act concerning the principles of conscious and liable parenting
For the purposes of general wellness education, the question of "planning adult life, including relationships and parenting" is included as the last point in the secondary school. However, there is no information in the general or circumstantial content at any level about the principles of conscious and liable parenting (or in Section V. intellectual health, not in section VI. Social health, or in any other). The subject of parenting appears to be mandatory only erstwhile discussing organisational, psychosocial and wellness aspects of pregnancy and parenting (LO VI.2). In primary school, in section VI in point 5, foster parents appear – listed as 1 of the changes that may happen in families alongside separation, divorce, parents' entry into fresh relationships, adoptions and siblings' appearance. another subjects related to parenting are only optional content, both for SP and LO, in terms of holidays and in terms of drafting messages on decisions of another people related to household life (VI optional requirements 1 and 3). It is worth noting that in the programming basis only erstwhile appears the word motherhood in the context of leave, and fatherhood not once. It should so be stated that the issue of parenting in the proposed wellness education is addressed only instrumentally without discussing any principles of conscious and liable parenting.
4. The content of the wellness education program not only does not show the value of the family, as ordered by the bill, but even depreciates the family
In section I of the draft programme basis entitled “Values and Attitudes” on any level of teaching, the household is not shown as value, which is already in clear contradiction with the legislative delegation of the regulation. The household is sometimes mentioned in this paper on the occasion, in the residual form. It is not around her that the content of teaching is concentrated. In wellness education, wellness is the leading value, as the name itself indicates. The general requirements for SP states that “the student knows and understands the principles of functioning in different social groups and the basic obligations of man towards the household and local community”. In IV-VI, the student is to discuss different but more undefined models of families (SP IV-VI, VI.2). So it could besides be a household composed of 2 fathers and children from erstwhile heteronormative relationships. Interestingly, the student, although he is to learn to care for relations with his parents and siblings (SP IV-VI, VI.4, LO V.2), is to know only the rights of the kid and the obligations of his parents (SP IV-VI, VI.3), but he does not request to know his duties and the rights of his parents. Changes that according to authors may appear in families can be described as negative or at least hard (divorce, separation, parents' entry into fresh relationships), and equally next to them are: the emergence of siblings or foster parents and adoption as situations that a young man someway has to deal with (SP IV-VI, VI.5). The household is besides next to the social environment indicated as a place of possible manipulation. However, neither the peer background nor the school nor the net (SP VII-VIII, VI.3) are indicated in this context. Therefore, the impression may be that the household is treated as a threat to the student.
5. alternatively of discussing methods and means of conscious procreation, the wellness education task focuses on artificial birth regulation through contraception and abortion
The last element, which should appear in accordance with the legislative delegation in fresh activities replacing household upbringing, is the content concerning "prenatal life and methods and means of conscious procreation". First of all, it is clear that a kid is not treated as a value here, nor is the life of a man since conception, so in the language itself, which is utilized by the authors of the program basis, the above terms do not appear. alternatively of the stages of prenatal life, therefore, the “most crucial facts about pregnancy” (SP IV-VI, VIII.3) appear. The center is not the improvement of a man, but a parent who has “a pregnancy”. It's a diametric difference, a change, you might say, ontological. In wellness education, procreative health, which is the concern of all government, is completely disregarded, due to the fact that it is linked to natural growth, fertility and yet to the future of the nation. In the basics of fresh activities, this subject does not exist. The word procreation does not appear, it does not discuss – as the law requires – methods and means of conscious procreation. There is no affirmative approach to having children, showing the value of being a parent. It is equal to parenthood and childlessness (LO VI, faculty 1), teaching respect for each of these decisions and not promoting this more pro-social and non-selfish attitude.
It is worth noting that, in general, the establishment of the presented programme base is specified as to inform only about various issues, comparing their value, not hierarchizing and not evaluating, and thus not raising anything. So matrimony is the same as an informal marriage, a household and a divorce, having offspring and childlessness. It is besides crucial that the emergence of another kid in the household is linked to another hard situations specified as separation or divorce (cf. SP IV-VI, VI.5). As the only means, but not so much conscious procreation, due to the fact that in this basis there is no attitude to the calling to life of fresh human beings, so alternatively as the only means governing fertility, contraceptives are shown (in VII-VIII class, SP VII-VIII, VIII.4 and LO, VII.3) and abortion (LO VII.7). However, natural methods of diagnosis of fertility have not been discussed (because there is no natural contraception, as the basic authors want – this is simply a factual error), there is no concern about procreative health, there is no showing, which affects the anticipation of having offspring. Nor does the question of natural household planning and informed parenting planning arise, as these topics are not a centre of interest to the creators of the basics of wellness education. Instead, it is already reported in the VII-VIII class about psychosexual orientation, sexual initiation conditions, but no longer about the effects of early initiation, as well as the negative effects of contraception or abortion. The legal aspects of pregnancy in minors are discussed (LO, VI, qualifier 3) and criminal liability for direct vulnerability to sexually transmitted diseases (LO VII.4). According to this analysis, wellness education classes tend to care for the parent and her pregnancy alternatively than human improvement in the prenatal phase. The subject of procreation is treated occasionally, without the issue of procreational health.
6. In the wellness education project, we can besides find content contrary to the pro-family content of the legislative delegation
The draft curriculum for wellness education includes: The student discusses "legal and social issues related to LGBTQ membership". Among the patterns promoted by LGBTQ (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders and queers) are, among another things, the pattern of "family of choice" or "blood of rainbows", e.g. 2 "we" and children, 2 "fathers" and children, 2 gays and 2 lesbians raising children from erstwhile relationships5. specified patterns undermine the conventional model of a household consisting of father, parent and children protected in Polish law. specified content is anti-family and is contrary to the 1993 Act.
Students are to get to know and to be able to discuss issues related to queers (last letter in LGBTQ acronym). In the Encyclopaedia gender, prepared by LGBTQ authors, we have the following explanation of the word “queer”: “The word queer (...) is by definition inclusive (the alleged umbrella term), i.e. a safe and friendly haven for all non-sexual norms in any form, whether heterosexual or homosexual”.6 Queer is in essence a rejection of all norms in the area of sex and sexuality. specified an educational programme is manifestly contrary to the provisions of the 1993 Law.
It is worth to add that in the publication Queer Studies. The course manual, ed. R. Biedron, J. Kochanowski, M. Abramowicz7, aims at queer policy are defined as follows: “A policy involving cognition developed in queer studies enables the accomplishment of a strategical goal: deconstruction and destabilisation of sex categories and sexuality, and thus demolition based on these categories of social stratification system, its exclusions and its violence. This is simply a far-reaching goal and far more crucial than immediate tactical successes, but only it can lead to the release of our bodies and desires from normative oppression, which is the primary subject of queer policy.”8
The introduction of this kind of content to school education is so the accomplishment of objectives specified as "deconstruction and destabilization of sex categories and sexuality", "destruction based on these categories of social stratification system" and "release from normative oppression". The inclusion of public institutions in the implementation of specified objectives is incompatible with the Polish legal order. It strikes values protected by Polish law, hits marriage, hits household and bears the signs of depravity and demoralization of children and young people.
Conclusion
The analysis of the Regulation of 5 February 2025, carried out in the context of the proposed content of classes called wellness education, leads to the conclusion that the Regulation does not only not implement the legislative delegation, but is contrary to it. wellness education will not replace current household education classes. In this situation, it would be a mistake to destruct the classes of upbringing for household life as the only ones who implement the provisions of the Act of 7 January 1993 on household Planning, Protection of Human Fetals and Conditions of Admissibility of Abortion. We ask you to leave these classes as optional, with implementation according to the current rules.
On behalf of 80 organisations associated with KROPS
Coordinators
Hanna Dobrowolska, School Protection Movement
Bartosz Kopczyński, Society of Social cognition in Toruń<
Agnieszka Pawlik-Regulska, Association of Teachers and Educators “Teachers for Freedom”
Mr Marek Puzio, Foundation Institute for Legal Culture Ordo Iuris
Sebastian Zuber, Freedom Heart Association
OPINION
concerning the draft regulation of the Minister of Education of 5 February 2025 on the way of school education and the scope of content concerning cognition about the sexual life of a person, on the principles of conscious and liable parenthood, on the value of a family, on prenatal life and on the methods and means of conscious procreation contained in the programme's general education1 (List 61)
The statutory delegation, which entitles the Minister of Education to issue the title regulation, is the Act of 7 January 1993 on household Planning, Protection of the Human Fetal and Conditions of Acceptability of Abortion (Journal of Laws of 2022 item 1575)2.
Article 4(3) of the abovementioned Act provides:
The Minister competent for Education and Education shall, by means of a regulation, find the way in which the school education and content referred to in paragraph 1 contained in the programming basis of general education is taught and shall introduce the subject substance referred to in paragraph 1 into the teacher education and improvement system.
Paragraph 1 of that Article states in turn:
Knowledge about the sexual life of a person, the principles of conscious and liable parenthood, household values, prenatal life and methods and means of conscious procreation is introduced into school curricula.
Thus, Article 4(1) lists the compulsory content of school education in the field of sex education. Their selection determines the pro-family nature of teaching. Both conditions – the thematic scope and the pro-family nature – meet the classes presently being conducted in schools called household upbringing (hereinafter: WEDZ).
The proposed regulation of 5 February 2025 introduces fresh classes called wellness education to schools in place of the WEDZ. The content of wellness education is included in 2 parallel draft regulations on changes in the programme basis:
- Regulation of the Minister of Education amending the Regulation on the basis of pre-school curricula and the basis of general education for primary school, including for pupils with average or crucial disabilities, general education for the sector-specific first-cycle school, general education for the peculiar school for staff and general education for the post-secondary school (project dated 29.10.2024, list 403).
- Regulation of the Minister of Education amending the regulation on the basics of general education for general advanced school, method school and second-cycle (project dated 29.10.2024, list 414).
The analysis of the above-mentioned draft regulations on the content of wellness education shows that they do not implement a statutory delegation.
These contents do not supply information on the principles of conscious and liable parenthood, depreciate the value of the family, ignore the question of procreative wellness and the value of life in the prenatal phase, and present the subject of human sexuality selectively. The draft regulation of 5 February 2025 is so contrary to the draft regulations setting out the programme basis for general education in health.
EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
1. no of the objectives of training defined in the school curriculum correspond to any of the objectives of the statutory delegation
The direction of implementation of the programme basis of individual educational activities defines the objectives assigned to them. The proposed wellness education objectives for primary and secondary schools relate mainly to wellness values, disregarding the value of household and parenthood. The student will be prepared to execute social roles, however, the evidence (quote) "responsible to execute social roles and build relationships based on values of health, dignity, respect and tolerance at all stages of his life." tells us to uncertainty whether these authors of the fresh program base include roles carried out in the household (the roles of husband, wife, mother, father), since there is no mention of building relationships based on love. Similarly, the student is to be “ready to take on duties that affect belonging to the community, to advance healthy lifestyle attitudes and wellness work among the members of the communities to which he belongs.” However, there is no separation of the basic community, which is the household and the student's preparation for building it. The analysis of the objectives shows that the ministry, as the programming basis for wellness education, was not intended to implement the recommendations of the statutory delegation.
2. The subject of human sexual life in the designed basis of wellness education is mainly focused on the physical and intellectual sphere, which determines the selective implementation of statutory content
This subject is represented at each educational level in section VII. Mature and VIII. Sexual health. However, he points out the deficiency of integral treatment of human sexuality and the separation of its physical sphere from mental, social and ethical spheres. The student does not receive essential information, e.g. on the consequences of early sexual initiation, early motherhood, and the subject of sexually transmitted diseases is only optional in Class VII-VIII. The only condition for co-existence according to the authors of the program basis is conscious consent (SP VII-VIII, VIII.3); however, there is no mention of lasting bond, love or responsibility. The household context is thus omitted.
3. The wellness education task omits the content mentioned in the Act concerning the principles of conscious and liable parenting
For the purposes of general wellness education, the question of "planning adult life, including relationships and parenting" is included as the last point in the secondary school. However, there is no information in the general or circumstantial content at any level about the principles of conscious and liable parenting (or in Section V. intellectual health, not in section VI. Social health, or in any other). The subject of parenting appears to be mandatory only erstwhile discussing organisational, psychosocial and wellness aspects of pregnancy and parenting (LO VI.2). In primary school, in section VI in point 5, foster parents appear – listed as 1 of the changes that may happen in families alongside separation, divorce, parents' entry into fresh relationships, adoptions and siblings' appearance. another subjects related to parenting are only optional content, both for SP and LO, in terms of holidays and in terms of drafting messages on decisions of another people related to household life (VI optional requirements 1 and 3). It is worth noting that in the programming basis only erstwhile appears the word motherhood in the context of leave, and fatherhood not once. It should so be stated that the issue of parenting in the proposed wellness education is addressed only instrumentally without discussing any principles of conscious and liable parenting.
4. The content of the wellness education program not only does not show the value of the family, as ordered by the bill, but even depreciates the family
In section I of the draft programme basis entitled “Values and Attitudes” on any level of teaching, the household is not shown as value, which is already in clear contradiction with the legislative delegation of the regulation. The household is sometimes mentioned in this paper on the occasion, in the residual form. It is not around her that the content of teaching is concentrated. In wellness education, wellness is the leading value, as the name itself indicates. The general requirements for SP states that “the student knows and understands the principles of functioning in different social groups and the basic obligations of man towards the household and local community”. In IV-VI, the student is to discuss different but more undefined models of families (SP IV-VI, VI.2). So it could besides be a household composed of 2 fathers and children from erstwhile heteronormative relationships. Interestingly, the student, although he is to learn to care for relations with his parents and siblings (SP IV-VI, VI.4, LO V.2), is to know only the rights of the kid and the obligations of his parents (SP IV-VI, VI.3), but he does not request to know his duties and the rights of his parents. Changes that according to authors may appear in families can be described as negative or at least hard (divorce, separation, parents' entry into fresh relationships), and equally next to them are: the emergence of siblings or foster parents and adoption as situations that a young man someway has to deal with (SP IV-VI, VI.5). The household is besides next to the social environment indicated as a place of possible manipulation. However, neither the peer background nor the school nor the net (SP VII-VIII, VI.3) are indicated in this context. Therefore, the impression may be that the household is treated as a threat to the student.
5. alternatively of discussing methods and means of conscious procreation, the wellness education task focuses on artificial birth regulation through contraception and abortion
The last element, which should appear in accordance with the legislative delegation in fresh activities replacing household upbringing, is the content concerning "prenatal life and methods and means of conscious procreation". First of all, it is clear that a kid is not treated as a value here, nor is the life of a man since conception, so in the language itself, which is utilized by the authors of the program basis, the above terms do not appear. alternatively of the stages of prenatal life, therefore, the “most crucial facts about pregnancy” (SP IV-VI, VIII.3) appear. The center is not the improvement of a man, but a parent who has “a pregnancy”. It's a diametric difference, a change, you might say, ontological. In wellness education, procreative health, which is the concern of all government, is completely disregarded, due to the fact that it is linked to natural growth, fertility and yet to the future of the nation. In the basics of fresh activities, this subject does not exist. The word procreation does not appear, it does not discuss – as the law requires – methods and means of conscious procreation. There is no affirmative approach to having children, showing the value of being a parent. It is equal to parenthood and childlessness (LO VI, faculty 1), teaching respect for each of these decisions and not promoting this more pro-social and non-selfish attitude.
It is worth noting that, in general, the establishment of the presented programme base is specified as to inform only about various issues, comparing their value, not hierarchizing and not evaluating, and thus not raising anything. So matrimony is the same as an informal marriage, a household and a divorce, having offspring and childlessness. It is besides crucial that the emergence of another kid in the household is linked to another hard situations specified as separation or divorce (cf. SP IV-VI, VI.5). As the only means, but not so much conscious procreation, due to the fact that in this basis there is no attitude to the calling to life of fresh human beings, so alternatively as the only means governing fertility, contraceptives are shown (in VII-VIII class, SP VII-VIII, VIII.4 and LO, VII.3) and abortion (LO VII.7). However, natural methods of diagnosis of fertility have not been discussed (because there is no natural contraception, as the basic authors want – this is simply a factual error), there is no concern about procreative health, there is no showing, which affects the anticipation of having offspring. Nor does the question of natural household planning and informed parenting planning arise, as these topics are not a centre of interest to the creators of the basics of wellness education. Instead, it is already reported in the VII-VIII class about psychosexual orientation, sexual initiation conditions, but no longer about the effects of early initiation, as well as the negative effects of contraception or abortion. The legal aspects of pregnancy in minors are discussed (LO, VI, qualifier 3) and criminal liability for direct vulnerability to sexually transmitted diseases (LO VII.4). According to this analysis, wellness education classes tend to care for the parent and her pregnancy alternatively than human improvement in the prenatal phase. The subject of procreation is treated occasionally, without the issue of procreational health.
6. In the wellness education project, we can besides find content contrary to the pro-family content of the legislative delegation
The draft curriculum for wellness education includes: The student discusses "legal and social issues related to LGBTQ membership". Among the patterns promoted by LGBTQ (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders and queers) are, among another things, the pattern of "family of choice" or "blood of rainbows", e.g. 2 "we" and children, 2 "fathers" and children, 2 gays and 2 lesbians raising children from erstwhile relationships5. specified patterns undermine the conventional model of a household consisting of father, parent and children protected in Polish law. specified content is anti-family and is contrary to the 1993 Act.
Students are to get to know and to be able to discuss issues related to queers (last letter in LGBTQ acronym). In the Encyclopaedia gender, prepared by LGBTQ authors, we have the following explanation of the word “queer”: “The word queer (...) is by definition inclusive (the alleged umbrella term), i.e. a safe and friendly haven for all non-sexual norms in any form, whether heterosexual or homosexual”.6 Queer is in essence a rejection of all norms in the area of sex and sexuality. specified an educational programme is manifestly contrary to the provisions of the 1993 Law.
It is worth to add that in the publication Queer Studies. The course manual, ed. R. Biedron, J. Kochanowski, M. Abramowicz7, aims at queer policy are defined as follows: “A policy involving cognition developed in queer studies enables the accomplishment of a strategical goal: deconstruction and destabilisation of sex categories and sexuality, and thus demolition based on these categories of social stratification system, its exclusions and its violence. This is simply a far-reaching goal and far more crucial than immediate tactical successes, but only it can lead to the release of our bodies and desires from normative oppression, which is the primary subject of queer policy.”8
The introduction of this kind of content to school education is so the accomplishment of objectives specified as "deconstruction and destabilization of sex categories and sexuality", "destruction based on these categories of social stratification system" and "release from normative oppression". The inclusion of public institutions in the implementation of specified objectives is incompatible with the Polish legal order. It strikes values protected by Polish law, hits marriage, hits household and bears the signs of depravity and demoralization of children and young people.
Conclusion
The analysis of the Regulation of 5 February 2025, carried out in the context of the proposed content of classes called wellness education, leads to the conclusion that the Regulation does not only not implement the legislative delegation, but is contrary to it. wellness education will not replace current household education classes. In this situation, it would be a mistake to destruct the classes of upbringing for household life as the only ones who implement the provisions of the Act of 7 January 1993 on household Planning, Protection of Human Fetals and Conditions of Admissibility of Abortion. We ask you to leave these classes as optional, with implementation according to the current rules.
On behalf of 80 organisations associated with KROPS
Coordinators
Hanna Dobrowolska, School Protection Movement
Bartosz Kopczyński, Society of Social cognition in Toruń<
Agnieszka Pawlik-Regulska, Association of Teachers and Educators “Teachers for Freedom”
Mr Marek Puzio, Foundation Institute for Legal Culture Ordo Iuris
Sebastian Zuber, Freedom Heart Association
