Civic Educational Association

TEACHING, UPBRINGING, CIVIL EDUCATION

The Civic Educational Association (Społeczne Towarzystwo Oświatowe, STO) is the leader of Polish non-public education. The Association was founded in 1987 as the first organization to promote the idea of education independent of the state monopoly. Starting from 1989, STO boards have been setting up a network of schools renowned for their high level of education, unique atmosphere and close cooperation with pupils’ parents. The main aims of STO may be stated briefly: pluralism of offers in the Polish education system, running schools which are creative in every respect, building a civil society.

The number of the Association’s boards is now around 100, with the number of schools being more than twice as high (some boards run two, three or even more schools) – so there are more than 200 establishments.

All STO schools are accredited institutions. Most of them are schools of general education – primary schools, gimnazjums (junior high schools) and liceums (high schools) – attended by nearly 20,000 pupils. Vocational, artistic and integration schools also operate within STO framework, as well as one school of higher education.

The vast majority of STO schools are small ones. Classes have usually fewer than twenty pupils. This provides a sense of security, there is no anonymity, it is easier to give pupils a more individualized approach.

The Association’s schools operate throughout Poland. More than half of them are in big cities, other in towns, even quite small ones. Around them there appear active circles of people who have interesting initiatives, not only in the field of education, but also in public, cultural and artistic life.

There are tuition fees in STO schools. Fees vary according to location (in big cities the cost of running schools is higher), syllabus, the amount of work performed by parents. Between 15 and 30% of the cost is covered by grants from local self-government authorities, based on statutory subsidies.

What is particular about STO schools?

In STO schools nothing happens without the parents’ approval, which is guaranteed by the very organizational system. Schools are run by the Association’s local boards and their members usually include the pupils’ parents.

Treating the pupil as a person is probably the most important message to which paramount importance is given in STO schools. However it is also necessary to make pupils aware of the limits of their own freedom. This is a serious task in their upbringing, both at school and at home. The point is that discipline should not be imposed arbitrarily; it should become – to a reasonable extent – a natural element of everyday life.

The purpose of didactic activities in STO schools is to stimulate the pupils’ own activity and independence understood primarily as the courage to ask questions and engage in discussions, the ability to obtain necessary information and to solve problems.

STO schools offer many additional activities beginning from the first grades. Logical thinking circles, nature lovers’ circles, photography, chess, artistic, music and dance groups, optional classes in the field of art, literature, IT, ecology, economics, psychology, drama groups – all of these make pupils feel "at home", because they are free to do whatever they are really interested in.

In gimnazjums and liceums, new subjects are introduced: philosophy, history of art, history of theatre and film. Another important change initiated in STO schools is individual profiles, i.e. developing the syllabuses for each individual pupil, taking into account their interests as well as the requirements of the so-called base syllabus.

Familiarity with modern information technology is treated as an elementary skill for school leavers. We know they face many new challenges in this field. Computer network and modern programs are used to teach many subjects, not only in IT classes.

Physical education is of great importance. Athletic activities in STO schools are not only for the most talented pupils. It is the active participation that matters, as it helps develop the habit to practise sports for health and fun. Particularly talented pupils can join sport teams, practise their favourite disciplines and take part in inter-school sports competitions.

Educational and integration trips and the so-called "green schools" are organized in autumn and spring. They are treated very seriously: especially developed didactic programmes and methods are employed, ones that not always may be applied in the regular school activities.

A characteristic feature of STO schools is that here the understanding of competition differs from the traditional one. If we aim at developing personalities, then "rat race" competition makes no sense. We want pupils to compete with themselves, that is, to work in order to constantly improve their own results. In this approach, there is no place for "learning to get a good mark". Teachers in our schools have developed various marking systems: description marks, points, percentages. They also encourage pupils to assess their own work.

Civic schools do not work in isolation. They have had to face typical problems of contemporary youth. The drug threat in STO schools very quickly ceased to be taboo, thanks to which, with careful observation and prophylactics, our schools are free from drugs. Violent behaviours in STO schools are detected at an early stage and they rarely become a problem in the upbringing. Youth trends – expressed by music and fashion – are present in the schools, but there are no subcultures fostered by rebellion and by the sense of hopelessness.

Is it possible that after education in schools which are close to young people’s trends, where parents have so much to say, without unnecessary stress and soulless competition, one may expect real achievements, pass external examinations, including new maturity examinations[1] and classify for the university faculty one wants?

Absolutely yes! It is possible! It even is quite easy!

External examinations that test pupils’ knowledge after primary school and after gimnazjum have shown that results of pupils from civic schools are usually very good, while results of STO schools inspire a sense of true achievement. Most our schools score far above the average values in their regions. It is not our purpose to fight for a high score in the rankings, but we are happy that so many of our schools win the prestigious top places. Beginning from the school year 2001/02 we have been using our own system to measure work quality as part of the project "Polish Good School Now" [Teraz Polska Dobra Szkoła]; these are quality certificates with Schola Reipublicae emblem.

STO has its own simple "secrets" of efficiency

1. good teams of teachers.
2. partnership with parents.
3. care for common features of schools.
4. active approach to legislation in the field of education.
5. constant improvement of work organization.
6. cooperation with local self-government authorities.

Other countries, different cultures

Even though upbringing in the civic and patriotic spirit calls for focus on the Homeland – both the great one and the little local ones – in STO schools we do not forget about the multiplicity of the world’s cultures. By gradually learning about them, our pupils get to know how complex the world we live in is, how much knowledge and tolerance we need to understand contemporary world.

The most common form of getting acquainted with the particularities of other countries is through the days of their cultures, e.g. Scottish Day, New Zealand Week, days of German or Japanese culture, days of the Anglo-Saxon countries, London Day, competition "Let’s get to know each other", drama and literature festivals in English. Some schools organize visits and revisits of youth groups, e.g. from Ukraine, Lithuania. Educational and upbringing projects include visiting Poles who live in the former eastern part of Poland.

STO actively participates in the education programme Socrates (established by the European Community) and its components, such as Comenius, Lingua, Arion. It also participates in the Europe-wide YOUTH programme (which includes promoting voluntary work), in the programme of the Polish and German Foundation for the Youth (mainly exchanges of groups during holidays) and in the European Studies programme, supported by Ireland (educational projects implemented in cooperation with European schools).

A new task – we want to expand the influence of ideas and achievements of STO

"Making public schools[2] more civic" is one of the aims included in STO Programme Declaration years ago, therefore from the very start the Association undertook activities to promote changes in the Polish education system – disseminating the ideas a pupil-friendly school, formulating the rights of parents at school, supporting the transfer of schools to local self-governments.

We believe that the achievements of STO may be successfully adapted for application in public schools. This concerns mainly the basic concepts, that is:

• treating pupils as persons,
• increasing the role played by parents (influence of local community),
• promoting creative attitudes of teachers,
• expanding the powers and responsibilities of school directors.

"A school, even if run by the state, remains public property". We are convinced that this programme is a contribution to building a civil society.

A bit of history

In the official publication Educational freedom in Eastern Europe, issued in the U.S. (by the U.S. Department of Education) in 1994, which is devoted to activities promoting independence of education in post-Communist Europe, there is a long piece (over a dozen pages) about STO movement. The whole publication begins with a slogan by Wojciech Starzyński, going back to 1987:

"How good it would be to break the monopoly of the Communists in Education".

In mid 1987, a group of parents and teachers decided to re-shape the Polish education system by setting up legal and independent civic schools. This initiative brought together a number of people who were the founders of the Civic Educational Association. The year 1988 was the time of fighting for the Association to be lawfully registered.

The first application for registration of the Civic Educational Association, submitted on 30 November 1987 to the Office of the Capital City of Warsaw, was rejected. The Founding Committee appealed against this decision but the appeal was rejected too. The next step was a complaint to the Minister of Home Affairs and request for re-examination of the application for registration. This time, despite opposition from the Ministry of National Education, the Civic Educational Association was registered on 29 December 1988.

After registration, the Association had to obtain consent to establish the first school where fees would be collected for tuition. It was obtained on 24 February 1989, following the Chief Administrative Court judgment in which the Court ruled that citizens have a constitutional right to free of charge public schools, not an obligation to exercise it.

The dates of the formation and start of operation of STO are a turning point in the history of independent education in Poland: it was the first time the Communist system allowed it to operate legally. The fight for registration of STO was accompanied by heated press discussions about the need for and possibility of establishing non-public schools and the state creating legal solutions to facilitate that. Most media not bound by the Communist party wholeheartedly supported the initiators of non-public schools, while the central and local party media were opposing this idea. Registration of STO took place thanks to enormous public support.

Publications

Books, including:

Prawa rodziców w szkole [Parents’ Rights at School]
W. Starzyński, E. Wieczorek, W. Kołodziejczyk, M. Kunicki-Goldfinger, Warsaw 2002, 2^nd ed. 2005

Szkoła, rodzina i lokalna społeczność w świecie zmian i różnic [School, Family and Community Partnership in a World of Differences and Changes]
ERNAPE conference, Gdańsk 2003 (materials in English and Polish)

Społeczne Towarzystwo Oświatowe w piętnastu rozdziałach [Civic Educational Association]
W. Starzyński, Warsaw 2005

Periodicals:

• "Edukacja i Dialog" [Education and Dialogue]
  monthly magazine for teachers and parents. It publishes mainly specialist articles in the field of pedagogy, psychology and community sociology, methodology of didactics and upbringing, syllabuses and the practical aspects of cooperation between schools and parents.
  
• "Poradnik Prezesa i Dyrektora" [Chairpersons and Directors Guide]
  compendium of legal provisions and regulations relating to education, indispensable for board management teams and school directors, published since 2000 (since 2004 in electronic form).
  
• "Szkoły Dialogu" [Schools of Dialogue]
  Information bulleting (free of charge) for STO boards and schools, published since 2001 monthly or bimonthly, also in electronic form.