The following debate took place on September 24, 2019 at the Warsaw School of Economics. Its subject was the issues of upbringing / moral education in schools. On the other hand, the aim was to outline a diagnosis of the situation in this respect, i.e. how schools cope with the implementation of educational functions and moral formation of students. At the beginning, the educational functions of schools were distinguished from the didactic functions (transmission of knowledge from teachers to students), leaving the latter to be discussed on another occasion. The issue of ways of creating a better balance in schools between the two functions they perform: education and transfer of knowledge (didactics) was also discussed.
The educational reform designed by Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (the Law and Justice political party) fits in a pattern of the previous Polish reforms, primarily due to the way they were introduced. The political rather than substantive factors determine their design, they are introduced too hastily, and the appointed experts are treated as an embellishment. This mode of operation is characteristic not only of Poland. The researchers cited in the text (J. Nelson, M. S. Archer, N. Luhmann) indicate its root causes and limited effectiveness. The state remains the most important player in shaping the educational system despite the attempts to reduce its influence on education under neo-liberal policies. However, the current analysis of its limited effectiveness should lay the foundations for a policy, which would take into account the need to reckon with the interests of other actors as well as to develop a long-term strategy.
This paper attempts to present a review of higher education reform processes in Poland in 1990-2015 and 2016-2018 (when a draft of the so‑called Act 2.0 was prepared) and an assessment of the domestic "art of reforms". As the author has adopted the perspective of the public policy science, she focuses on issues of public policy making, i.e. the development and strategic programming policy, drafting legislation, and accompanying public consultations. Furthermore, the paper discusses three past and one current attempt to reform higher education in the context of the political economy of reforms that are globally perceived as a benchmark. The long, nearly 30‑year period covered by the paper's analyses allowed the author to draw conclusions with regard to the evolution of higher education policy, highlighting the problem of its quality (standards) as a public policy.
The article discusses the Norwegian response to the neoliberal movement of privatising public education. Neoliberal trends in public services, including education, mainly manifest themselves in the affirmation of the economic efficiency in public services provision, increased participation of private and non-governmental organisations and the creation of quasi-markets. In Norway likewise in other Scandinavian countries the reform of public sector has not been strongly influenced by neoliberal ideology and the New Public Management. On the other hand, it was the political decentralisation and empowerment of local communities that shaped the organisation and management of the school system. The primary aim of the Norwegian education is to ensure equality and inclusion for all students, regardless of their gender, abilities, family background, nationality and health condition. !e article presents the historical path of public and non-public schooling in Norway illustrated by the statistical data concerning kindergartens, schools and pupils respectively. The central and local government still provides the vast majority of public education services and the non-public sector remains limited. Nevertheless in the last 10 years the rise in the number of private schools has been noticed, especially in bigger cities and more affluent dwellings. In its final part the article presents the recent developments in the privatisation policy conducted by the conservative government in Norway. It deliberates postulates relating to modification of administrative procedures leading to the establishment of private schools, widening the school choice for parents as well as diversification of the teachers' professional status. It also sketches examples of the utilisation of private-public partnerships in construction and operationof public schools.
The article focuses on the theoretical and practical analysis of various levels of governance in higher education - at the systemic level, at the institutional level and at the level of public policy making in higher education system and universities. Both Poland and Ukraine are facing the common challenges of the urgent need to diminish bureaucracy at universities and to deregulate the system of higher education, which requires the necessary changes to the legal framework at the institutional and systemic levels. The article considers which tools in the process of transformation of higher education, both at the macro (governance in HES and public policy) and micro (governance and management in HEI) levels can be used in order to find effective solutions in the areas of management, governance and public policy in the higher education system.
This publication was created as part of the Human Capital "PIP: The Future of professional Education - local partnership to increase the adaptability of vocational teachers" program at the request of the Regional Labour Office in Bialystok, in the framework of Measure 8.1 Development of employees and enterprises in the region, sub-measure 8.1.3 Strengthening the partnership for local adaptation, co-financed by the European Union under the European Social Fund. The aim of the project is to develop the end of June 2015 collaboration solutions of local institutions and companies for the modernization of enterprises and vocational schools in the Podlaskie region in terms of forms of work organization, forms of performing work, work-life balance and adaptability of professional teachers threatened with unemployment.
The paper outlines socio-historical factors that led to the emergence of a new trend in doing research on disability issue – Disability Studies and the dissemination of a social definition of disability, on which the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is based. The main part of the text provides a critical analysis of the implementation process of article 24 CRPD at Polish universities with regard to relevant regulatory acts and using reasonable accommodations. Next, statistical data on students and PhD candidates with disabilities are presented. The main conclusions from thematic reports by the Polish Commissioner for Human Rights and by the disabled persons organizations are also presented. In the last part, the disability issue is discussed in the context of creating the Law on Higher Education 2.0 with the case study of amendment no. 47.
