To begin, let us first review the three United Nations Global Education First Initiative priorities.

The first is to expand access to education, giving as many children as possible the opportunity to
receive an education. The second is to improve the quality of learning that takes place in the
school setting. The third is to foster global citizenship in the worlds youth by cultivating an
active care for the world as well as for the people in it. Combined, these three priorities aim to
create a well-educated global population that possess the skills, knowledge, and values necessary
to work together in order to resolve the challenges that face our 21st century world. Given that
this initiative was founded in September of 2012, each member of the United Nations has had
over three years to implement changes in their education systems in order to align with these
priorities. Today, we are here to discuss Poland and the progress that the country has made in
recent years in regards to the priorities put forth by the initiative in question.
The first priority put forth by the Global Education First Initiative is relatively easy to measure
due to the availability of statistics regarding educational enrollment at various grade levels.
There has been a noticeable increase in enrollment rates at all levels of education in Poland in the
wake of the initiatives 2012 launch. Between 2008 and 2012, the gross enrollment rate for preprimary school participation was 71.05%; by the end of 2013, this rate had risen to 75.3%. This
also holds true at the primary and secondary levels as well. Between 2008 and 2012, the net
enrollment rate for primary school participation rested at 96.8% while the net enrollment rate for
secondary school participation was at 91%; by the end of 2013, these same rates had increased to
96.9% and 92.1% respectively. While these may not be drastic increases, they nonetheless
represent progress given that the increases took place over the course of only a single year. As
such, there is no denying that Poland has taken steps towards meeting the first priority put forth
by the initiative in question.

Progress in regards to the second priority put forth by the Global Education First Initiative,
which to recount focuses on improving the quality of the learning that takes place in the
classroom, can also be measured by discussing certain indicative statistics and how they have
changed in the wake of the initiatives passage. Unfortunately, the results of this particular
inquiry do not demonstrate progress for Poland. Literacy refers to the ability to read and write
and, when discussed in the form of a rate, also encompasses numeracy and the ability to conduct
simple arithmetic calculations. Between 2008 and 2012, before the passage of the Global
Education First Initiative, Poland boasted a literacy rate of 100% for the population over the age
of 15 years old. This statistic remained at 100% in 2013, the year after the initiatives passage.
However, by 2015 the literacy rate had declined to 99.8% for the total population aged 15 and
older. While a 0.2% decrease may seem marginal in theory, it nonetheless indicates a decline in
the quality of education that students are receiving in Poland. This may be due, in part, to a lack
of funding. Without a capable staff and the proper equipment, it can be difficult to provide a
quality education to students. Back in 2009, before the passage of the initiative, Poland was only
spending 5.1% of its total GDP on public education expenditures. Over the course of the next
two years this percentage decreased even further, reaching 4.9% of Polands total GDP by 2011.
While this particular statistic has not been measured since to my knowledge, it would seem that
Poland needs to dedicate more money to education expenditures in order to help increase the
quality of the education being provided for the countrys students.

Public spending on education - total (% of GDP) in

This chart details the patterns in educational spending in Poland as a percentage of
the total GDP. Despite reaching a high in 2005, this statistic declined severely in
the following years and even when it did rebound, it was not able to reach the same
percentage recorded in 2005.

The final priority set forth by the Global Education First Initiative is a bit more difficult to
analyze due to the fact that it is not easily represented by any given statistic. However, the issue
is discussed in a journal article written by Joanna Leek, a member of the Faculty of Educational
Sciences at the University of Lodz in Poland. In her article, she points out that the core curricula
in Poland at both the primary and secondary levels place an emphasis on teaching values that
link students to both their local communities as well as to a larger community in the form of the
human population on a global scale. Given that this article was written in 2015, it would appear
that Poland is doing its part to foster a sense of global citizenship in its students in alignment
with the third priority of the United Nations Global Education First Initiative. However, there is
also a perception by Polish students that education is not necessary for achieving success. This
indicates a lack of emphasis on the important role that education plays in building a strong global
community. This is one area that Poland needs to work on if they are to truly produce future
generations of global citizens that are interested in academic success and thus willing to educate

themselves to the fullest degree in order to best prepare themselves for helping solve the worlds
problems.

This chart depicts the perceived importance of academic success as a prerequisite for
achieving success in Poland. It details the results that this query has received from polled
citizens between 1988 and 2013. This chart shows that between 2008 and 2013 there has
been a noticeable drop in the percentage of respondents who view a good education as
essential to achieving success as well as a marginal, but still existent, drop in those who
view a good education as very important. Conversely, the percentage of respondents
who view a good education as somewhat important, somewhat unimportant, and not at all
Sources:

important have all risen between 2008 and 2013.

At a glance: Poland. (2013, December 27). Retrieved from
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/poland_statistics.html#117

EdStats Dashboards: Poland. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://datatopics.worldbank.org/education/wDashboard/tbl_index.aspx
Leek, Joanna (2015). Ethics education in Polish schools a multicultural approach with a
global view. Rose: Research on Steiner Education, 6(Special issue), 185-191.
Poland. (2016). The World Factbook. Retrieved from
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/pl.html
Priorities. (n.d.). Global Education First Initiative. Retrieved from
http://www.globaleducationfirst.org/priorities.html
Public spending on education total (% of GDP) in Poland. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/poland/public-spending-on-education-total-percent-ofgdp-wb-data.html
Wysienska-Di Carlo, K., & Di Carlo, M. (2014). Attitudes Toward Education and Hard
Work in Post-Communist Poland. Albert Shanker Institute. Retrieved from
http://www.shankerinstitute.org/blog/attitudes-toward-education-and-hard-work-postcommunist-poland