by Natalia Pacholczyk. The article was posted in Polish on 18/05/2021 on gazeta.pl

The Minister of Education and Science Przemysław Czarnek was a guest of “Rozmowy Dnia” [eng. Talk of the Day] in Radio Wrocław. He was asked, among other things, about the consequences of the PiS ‘Polish Deal’ programme for education. The reform, is to encompass, among others, history lessons, which will be divided into two blocks: general history and Polish history. In the case of secondary schools, there will be two to three lessons per block, so pupils can expect as many as six history lessons per week.

The journalist from Radio Wrocław asked Przemysław Chernek why the Polish Deal is emphasising precisely the study of history. The minister pointed out that the programme envisaged more changes, but there was particular focus on history because it is ‘extremely important’.

‘History, because if Poles do not know their history, their past, they will not relate to their identity, then Poland will not develop. […] Pupils of the last classes of secondary schools will learn about the history of the whole of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, which was not the case in previous years. But we want to do as we have announced in the Polish Deal, namely to make a two-track approach: Polish history and general history in secondary schools with a larger number of hours,’ the minister explained.

When asked what the pupils will learn about during the history lessons, the minister said ‘all events that are of exceptional importance to the fate of the Polish State.’ This will include but will not be limited to the previously announced lessons on the Smolensk disaster, Poland’s accession to the EU and the Lisbon Treaty.

‘There will also be the functioning of Poland within the European Union, the evolution of the European Union from an entity governed by the rule of law to an entity that is not governed by the rule of law, because today it is not governed by the rule of law, as it does not observe its own legal framework. And we can see this precisely. […] The pupils will also learn about this, because they have to get to know the situation we are in,’ the politician said.

Przemysław Czarnek on the cursed soldiers. ‘This is what we have been discovering over the past 10 years, whereas it is being torpedoed’.

According to Przemysław Czarnek, the programme will also extensively cover the topic of the ‘cursed soldiers’ [post-Second World War Polish anti-communist partisans – ed.]. ‘This is what we have been discovering over the past 10 years, whereas it is being torpedoed, it can be said, in a ruthless and extremely ugly way by the liberal-leftist world,’ he continued.

The journalist also asked the minister about whether the pupils will learn about Lech Wałęsa. Czarnek made the assurance that there was ‘not even the slightest doubt’ about that. ‘Why should they not learn about Lech Wałęsa? He is absolutely one of those people who have had an enormous impact on Poland’s fate. About Lech Wałęsa, about the Workers’ Defence Committee, about Solidarity, about the strikes on the coast, about the 1980 Lublin July, because it all started with the Lublin July, whereas people don’t know about this. These are things that are not mentioned strongly enough today in the pages of history or in the history books. And this should be there, so that we can feel proud of our ancestors,’ he pointed out.

‘Education of pride’ instead of ‘education of shame as dictated by the newspaper from Czerska Street’ 

Czarnek also said that ‘it can sometimes be seen’ that there are ‘some complexes about being Polish’ in Poland. ‘We have given Europe a lot as Poles, in many places. There is little knowledge about this; it seems as if it should be much greater, so that we can feel proud of being Poles. We will not feel proud if we do not know our own history,’ he added. The politician also spoke about the fact that Poland is dominated by ‘education of shame, which had been taking place for 20 years, dictated by one newspaper from  Czerska Street’ [the headquarters of Gazeta Wyborcza, the biggest liberal Polish daily, are on Czerska Street in Warsaw – ed.].

According to the minister, ‘education of pride’ should appear, which would involve films or other areas of art focusing on ‘the beauty of history, not forgetting what was ugly’, but also ‘not emphasising the ugliness’.

Translated by Roman Wojtasz