Przemysław Czarnek appointed Minister of Education and Science

Appointed by President Andrzej Duda, among the new minister’s responsibilities will be the need to strengthen the role of parents in the education process and ensuring freedom of scientific research.

President Duda said the combination of two departments in one ministry puts a lot of responsibility on the head of the ministry, but also allows for better coordination of two parts of the educational process.

He said: “This is a very difficult task, because today there is a lot of content in the Polish education system, about which Polish families have great doubts as to whether they would like their children to be educated in this way.”

He added that his intention was for “parents to have a real influence on the decisions - what curriculum and other content is passed on to children at school, against which parents have the right to defend their children.”

A presidential draft amendment to the education law is aimed at “strengthening the constitutional right of parents to raise their children in accordance with their beliefs.”

If passed, the activities of all organizations and associations in schools will require parental consent.

The president said that not only the programmes in primary and secondary schools, but also the functioning of universities required a 'deep review'.

He said: “In recent years, people trying to achieve higher ranks in scientific development, formalize it, have been brutally attacked for not having a politically correct, liberal-leftist worldview.

“There can be different views and it is not the case that only a liberal-leftist profile can exist at Polish universities, there should be different views and these views should clash with each other.

“I would ask for ensuring true freedom of scientific research at Polish universities. The independence of universities must be preserved, the autonomy of universities must be preserved, but the autonomy must not be based on autocracy, where people are destroyed.”

Duda said that there was no 'universally binding view' in Poland, and he characterized science as a clash of different points of view.

Originally, Czarnek was supposed to receive the nomination with other new ministers on October 5, but earlier that day he revealed that he had tested positive for the coronavirus.

The appointment of ministers was then postponed to October 6, when all new members of the government accepted their appointments, except for Czarnek, who became the Minister of Education and Science after the procedure related to his coronavirus infection was completed.

Before the government reconstruction, there were two separate ministries: The Ministry of National Education, headed by Dariusz Piontkowski, and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, headed by Wojciech Murdzek. 

(PAP)

author: Mateusz Roszak

mro/ mok/ kap/

tr. RL