Dilmah to Open T-Bars

Poland - New Market?

The company Gourmet Foods, which imports and distributes Dilmah tea, will open a “t-bar” in Warsaw, the first outlet of a new tea shop chain. It is highly probable that the first t-bar will be opened in Warsaw this year. Gourmet Foods plans to develop the tea house chain under the name “t-bar”. “For the time being, we will establish only one tea shop and if customers like the idea, we will open other outlets. In the future, we would like to create a chain of tea houses in Poland,” says Mr Paweł Dudziak, communication coordinator of Gourmet Foods. If we manage to succeed, t-bars will be the first chain of tea shops in Poland, similar to those which already exist on the coffee market. As Ms Agata Zarębska, analyst of the food service market, notes, currently there are only independent tea houses or chains such as, Czas na herbatę (Tea Time) in Poland, which specialise mostly in selling tea to go. “In our shops, customers will be able not only to drink tea, but also eat and read, whilst the sale of take-away tea will just be an additional element of the business,” explains Paweł Dudziak. He also adds that the idea will most certainly turn out to be a success. “After analysing the hitherto sale of Dilmah tea, we are sure that t-bars will prove to be a success, especially since similar tea houses have already been operating in all the bigger cities in Europe, for instance, in Milan or France,” says Paweł Dudziak.
Gazeta Prawna

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Civil Servants Learning Languages

Adult Education for Euro 2012

Due to the upcoming Euro 2012, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration (MSWiA) has decided to enroll as many as 7,300 civil servants such as police officers, office workers and public officers into language study courses. Such professional training of firefighters, customs officers, government protection workers is said to cost PLN 23.5 million. The training is being financed by the European Union as “improving the know-how of civil servants”. “The Euro 2012 football championships will draw many tourists and sports fans to Poland and we want to be prepared for them. It is most important that civil servants who have direct contact with foreigners are trained,” says Krzysztof Hajdas, spokesperson for the Warsaw Police Department. Police officers form the largest group on these courses, but they are not the only group that participates.

The regional emergency services, hospitals and public offices also have also sent their employees onto these courses. In Katowice and Łódź about PLN 500,000 was acquired from EU funds to train nurses, doctors and ambulance crews in foreign languages. ”Euro 2012 is a perfect opportunity to not only learn languages but also take advantage of  EU funds. Increasingly more schools decide to take advantage of EU money,” says Anna Idzikowska, owner of the language school Szuster, in Łódź, where currently she is teaching almost 200 medical workers from the region. She received PLN 740,000 for her project. The host cities for Euro 2012 are heading this language revolution. In Poznań, bus and tram drivers will undergo language training, whereas Warsaw’s Municipal Transport Department (ZTM) will educate their ticket collectors. In Poznań, even taxi drivers have decided to learn foreign languages. The upcoming football championships are not the only reason for this sudden rush towards knowledge; another is the availability of EU funds. The budget of the Human Capital Program which finances language courses amounts to €11.3 billion. It is not known how much of this money was spent on such courses, but they are necessary because according to Eurostat it appears that 1/3 of Polish people (37%) does not know any foreign language.
Dziennik

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Dyscalculia is Humbug

Maths Not Easy

Dyscalculia or calculexia is a learning disorder that affects people’s ability to do mathematical problems, write down numbers and figures and see the difference between mathematical symbols. A student with dyscalculia might write down 10001 instead of 101, for example. The Ministry of National Education (MEN) has announced that students who provide certificate of suffering from calculexia cannot count on preferential treatment in their ‘matura’ examination in mathematics. From next year onwards, mathematics will be a compulsory ‘matura’ subject. To begin with, MEN wanted to undertake research on dyscalculia to see how many students suffer from the disorder, however, the Ministry decided not to pursue this course and has since stated that dyscalculia was ‘invented’ in the 1930s and that there has actually never been evidence for the existence of this disorder. According to estimates, approximately 1% of the population suffer from this disorder.
Gazeta Wyborcza

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Plagiarism Under the Microscope

To Copy or Not to Copy?

At the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, a Doctor of English studies has owned up to a double academic deception, after which he appeared before a disciplinary committee. For ‘double’ plagiarism he will probably face a life ban on the right to practice his profession as a university teacher. There are similar cases in progress in Łódź, Warsaw, and Kraków. According to experts from Plagiat.pl, as many as 25% of all dissertations contain plagiarism. “We do not have detailed information on the scale of this plague in Polish universities, however we can base it on foreign research. The situation in Poland is comparable with that in other countries, if not worse,” says Doctor Sebastian Kawczyński, head of Plagiat.pl. Indeed, the research is alarming. In 2004 almost 25% of British students admitted to committing plagiarism, whereas in Germany the number of such students amounted to as many as 50%. According to Marek Rocki, the head of the State Accreditation Committee, universities finally began to perceive the problem, as they introduced a system to fight plagiarism. “Most of our departments have been using  the Plagiat.pl system for many years,” says Magdalena Gardas, spokeswomen for the University of Szczecin. She continues saying that a dissertation is not allowed to be defended if more than 20% of its content is borrowed. “What is interesting, after implementing the system in universities, advertisements for writing theses to order have disappeared from the internet,” says Gardas. For committing plagiarism one may face civil and criminal charges. The penalty for attributing to yourself the authorship of someone else’s work, even without any financial profit, is three years’ imprisonment.
Rzeczpospolita

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Zero Class = Zero Learning

Learning Curve?

Parents who have signed their children into the so-called “zero class”, instead of signing them to the first grade of primary school, have just discovered the trap of the new educational law – their offspring will NOT be learning how to read and write. The majority of parents have learned about this fact only after signing their children into the so-called “zero class”. Some of them have even changed their minds, afraid that their kids will lose a year, and have transferred their children to first grade. Who is to be blamed for this situation? The Ministry of Education, it seems. Last year, when politicians were discussing sending six-year-olds to first grade, the Ministry of Education (MEN) already had the curriculum ready for kindergartens and the first grade. The curriculum was based on the assumption that the new Educational Act, which reduces the school age from six to five years, will come into force and all six-year-olds will attend first grade.

That is why the curriculum states what children finishing kindergarten should know. For example, they should be able to determine directions and positions on a sheet of paper, they should listen to fairytales and stories and they should be interested in reading and writing. Not actually how to read and write, but be interested about it. They are supposed to learn this in first grade. Publishers, based on those guidelines, hastily prepared books for first graders, assuming that children will not yet know letters. In the meantime, politicians of the ruling coalition afraid of a presidential veto of the Act and under pressure from revolting parents, whose movement Ratujmaluchy.pl has gathered over forty thousand signatures against the new law, decided to implement a transitory period until 2012 and let parents decide whether they want to send their six-year-old children to “zero-class”, or to first grade. Unfortunately for MEN parents are not willing to send their children to school and the average number of six-year-olds going to first grade in major Polish cities oscillates around 3%.

What will happen now? Six-year-olds in “zero classes” will be learning from the curriculum prepared for children at the age of five. When at the age of seven they go to first grade they will learn from the curriculum for six-year-olds. According to MEN everything is working as expected. Moreover, MEN has posted an announcement on its official website which states that “using textbooks for kindergarten teaching is not only not necessary, but even not encouraged”. Among other things, MEN does not want children practising writing. “During kindergarten education children should be taught how to learn in school later on. Making children sit at desks and learning how to read and write should be left for school-level education,” explains the MEN spokesman Grzegorz Żurawski. The protests of parents seem to have fallen on deaf ministerial ears, because as Żurawski adds “Tough luck. Parents should decide if they care for their children’s education, in which case they should send them to first grade; or if they prefer, kindergarten.”
Gazeta Wyborcza

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MA Works in Cloakroom

Professionals on the Dole

Do you need to have a degree in economics to work in a cloakroom at the Warsaw School of Economics? Anna Chylińska, an economist, after 11 years of working in an office became a cloakroom attendant.  “I feel humiliated. I work in a cloakroom and professors who know me give me their coats every day. My boss forbade me to mention to anybody that I have an MA degree,” she says. Anna Chylińska has been working at the Warsaw School of Economics since 1996. She was a secretary in the Social Politics Faculty. Her only education then was her matura exam. “It was mainly paper work, writing applications, organising meetings,” she says “I have never missed one single day at work. There were never any complaints about me.” In 2005 the faculty where she worked merged with another unit of the school. She was the first to be given notice due to a reduction in staff. She asked for help from the trade unions and she was transferred to the bursary. She had to deal with accounting, public orders and student organisations. Meanwhile she completed her BA studies. A year later she defended her MA thesis on international business at the University of Economics and Computer Science in Warsaw.

She had classes with professors from the Warsaw School of Economics. “I wanted to improve my qualifications. I paid for my studies myself and I did not have any free time before the exams. It wasn’t easy, I was also taking care of my mother,” she says. She was surprised when she was given the option from dr. Piotr Wachowiak to either accept a transfer to another part of the school or be given notice. She could not afford being unemployed. Her mother was sick and had a pension of PLN 800 and her daughter was still at school. She had to sign the transfer. She was informed about her new job. Just before the transfer she trained a person who was going to replace her. She did not understand why a cloakroom attendant has to train an accountant. She knows she should not have signed the transfer, however she thought she will find something else, that the cloakroom is just a temporary job. Bad luck does not want to leave her. She has just been informed about the fact that a private company is going to get rid of all the cloakrooms. Her colleagues are going to work at the reception desk or as swimming pool staff and she will be fired. According to Tomasz Rusek, the school’s spokesman, the transfer to the cloakroom was her own idea because of the poor situation in her family. “I’ve got nothing to lose,” says Chylińska, “I’ve decided not to stay silent because I want to show people how the best economic school in Poland treats its employees.
Gazeta Wyborcza

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No School for Six-year-olds

No Education

According to Gazeta Wyborcza the authorities have not managed to convince parents of six-year-olds to send them to first grade. Reporters of Wyborcza have looked at how many six-year-olds will go to first grade in September in Poland’s major cities. With partial results varying from 0.4% in Gliwice to 14% in Gdynia, and with a national average of nearly 3%, the overall results are quite different from what the Ministry of National Education (MEN) had anticipated. In January, the Minister of National Education Katarzyna Hall expected that around 30% of six-year-olds will go to first grade.

Today she says: “I never thought that many parents will send their children to first grade at the beginning of the transitory period. I understand the fears that parents may have about the difference in the way their children will be treated in kindergarten and in school. After all, I am a mother myself”. At present parents prefer their chidlren to stay in kindergarten a year longer. They even prefer to send them to so-called “zero class” in schools, rather than to first grade.  “This shows us that parents have vetoed the change,” says Karolina Elbanowska, founder of the parents’ movement Ratujmaluchy.pl, which is against the new law. She adds: “this is evidence that you cannot suddenly pass new regulations without the necessary preparation and appropriate funds”. According to the regulations of the new Educational Act all six-year-olds will have to go to first grade in 2012. Until then it is up to parents to decide. However, Katarzyna Hall says that “if after three years still not enough parents have decided to send their children to first grade at the age of six, the Sejm can extend the transitory period by a year or two”.

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According to “Gazeta” Wyborcza” the authorities did not manage to convince parents of six-year-olds to send them to the first grade.

Reporters of “Wyborcza” have investigated how many six-year-olds will, in major Polish cities, go to the first grade in September. With the partial results varying from 0.4% in Gliwice to 14% in Gdynia and the countrywide average of almost 3%, the overall results are quite different from what the Ministry of Education (MEN) expected. In January, the Minister of Education, Katarzyna Hall expected that around 30% of six-year-olds will go to the first grade. Today she says that “I never assessed that many parents will send their children to the first grade at the beginning of the transitory period. I understand fears that parents may have about difference in treatment of their children in kinder garden and in school. After all, I am a mother myself”.

At present parents prefer that their kids stayed in the kinder garden a year longer. They even prefer to send them to the so-called “zero class” in schools, rather than to the first grade.

“Those actions show that parents vetoed the change”, says Karolina Elbanowska – founder of the parents’ movement Ratujmaluchy.pl, which is against the new law. She adds that “it is the evidence that you cannot abruptly pass the new law without proper preparations and appropriate funds”.

According to the regulations of the new Educational Act all six-year-olds will have to go to the first grade in 2012. Until then it is up to the parents to decide. However, Katarzyna Hall says that “if after three years still not enough parents decide to send their children to the first grade at the age of six, the Sejm can extend the transitory period by a year or two”.

Retaking High School Finals

Helping Hands?

High school graduates from Sulęcin High School in Lubuskie Province are being threatened with having to repeat their Polish language exam. A priest accompanied by a headmaster entered the hall during the examination and prayed for the students’ success. Parents of a few students were annoyed at this fact and said that the prayer took away time needed for writing their compositions. After the exam, parents sent a letter to the school inspectorate in Gorzów Wielkopolski concerning procedural errors in the exam. School superintendents are now waiting for the headmaster’s explanations before making any decision on retaking the exam. Wojciech Lewicki, the headmaster, says procedures were not violated. “We entered the hall before students received their examination sheets. This is recorded by the school monitoring system,” he assured  parents in an interview in Gazeta Lubuska.
Dziennik

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Cunning Con Caught

Con Caught

The identity of the eighteen-year-old, who posted the middle school graduation exams on an American server, has been revealed. It is Adam Z. from Warsaw. The boy received the documents from a cleaning lady working in one of middle schools in Warsaw. The woman is related to Adam Z. Both of them, including the principal of the school, were suspended. So far it is unclear how exactly an unauthorized person came into the possession of these classified tests. What is certain, however, is that the cleaning lady gave the tests to her eighteen year old cousin, who then posted them on the internet. The boy has already pleaded guilty. He uploaded the exams on Tuesday morning. They were available for almost 24 hours. As a result, the Central Examination Commission has announced that those middle school pupils who used the leaked answers will have to sit the exam once again.
Dziennik

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No Sexual Education in School

Education

A group of Polish feminists is outraged with the government as it has decided that sexual education will not be compulsory. “If the decision is not changed we may bring the case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg,” warns Wanda Nowicka, chairwoman of the Polish Federation for Women and Family Planning. The Federation and other feminist organizations have signed an agreement calling for sexual education. They demand introducing compulsory sexual education which would give young people thorough knowledge about contraception and how to avoid HIV. The Ministry of National Education (MEN) is of the opinion that compulsory sexual education would be against the Constitution in which it is stated that parents have the right to bring up their children according to their beliefs. “This is not true. The European Court of Human Rights has already settled this issue. Sexual education has nothing to do with faith. It is a science not an ideology,” said Wanda Nowicka. The Tribunal in Strasbourg has indeed settled the issue of sexual education in the past. In 1976 parents from Denmark complained that compulsory sexual education clashes with their religion. However, the Tribunal did not accept their arguments. What does MEN think? “We have to obey the Polish Constitution which was accepted by the whole of society and not simply listen to one social group,” said Grzegorz Żurawski, a spokesman.
Dziennik

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