Protest against education reform as Polish MPs debate in parliament

Several hundred people gathered in front of Poland's parliament on Tuesday afternoon to protest a government plan to reform the country's education system, Polish Press Agency reported.

The protest concerned two draft bills that the country's Members of Parliament (MPs) began considering on Tuesday and that would phase out junior high schools, among other moves.

The protest was organised by the Polish Teachers' Union and a group calling itself the "No to Chaos in Schools" Coalition. It was attended by teachers and parents as well as politicians from a leftist party not represented in parliament.

The protesters held banners saying "We are defending education together," "No chaos in schools," and "Stop the destruction of education."

"We do not need a revolution; we have a very good school system that has been built thanks to the efforts of hundreds of thousands of teachers, parents, and local governments," said the head of the Polish Teachers' Union, Slawomir Broniarz.

He appealed to the country's MPs and education minister Anna Zalewska to scrap the reform because he said it would "dismantle and demolish" Poland's school system.

Under the reform, starting from next year, the government would reintroduce a previous system of eight years of elementary school followed by four years of high school or five years at a technical school.

The current system, introduced in 1999, is six years of attendance at an elementary school, three years at a junior high school and three years at high school. Endit