Place guarantee to ECEC

Children aged up to 3 years

Care for children aged up to 3 years is a statutory task of the commune (gmina, the lowest-level local government unit). However, there is no legal guarantee to a place in early childhood education and care (ECEC) for children aged up to 3 years.

The main obstacle to ECEC access is that there are too few crèches to meet the demand. Changes introduced since 2011 have aimed to provide conditions for the development of diverse care settings for children aged up to 3 years. Recent years have seen a significant increase in the number of care institutions for small children. From 2017 to 2018, the number of childcare institutions for children aged up to 3 years increased by around 19 %. However, the demand for places is still not being fully met.

Number of institutions and places for children aged up to 3 years, 2011–2018

Source: Activity and financial reports on care for children aged up to 3 years, 2011–2018. The 2011 and 2012 reports do not include the number of places in non-public settings, so these values are drawn from the 2017 report of the Council of Ministers on the implementation of the Act of 4 February 2011 on care for children up to the age of 3 years.

There has been a rapid expansion of childcare services in recent years. At the end of 2017, childcare institutions were available in only 805 communes, representing 32 % of all communes. By the end of 2018, childcare institutions (crèches, kids’ clubs and daycare providers) were already available in 930 communes, representing 38 % of all communes in Poland (data from a report by the Ministry of Family and Social Policy). Regarding rural communes in particular, childcare institutions were available in only 268 of them at the end of 2017 (17 % of the total), but this increased to 335 at the end of 2018 (21 % of the total).

Children aged 0–3 years enrolled in childcare institutions

Around 19.3 % of children aged over 1 year up to 2 years and over 2 years up to 3 years (the largest childcare cohorts) were provided with childcare (18.4 % excluding nannies). The proportion is estimated to have reached 23.4 % in 2019.

Children with a disability and children requiring special care represented around 1 % of all children enrolled in crèches and kids’ clubs.

Children aged 3–6 years

Every child is legally entitled to receive preschool education from the beginning of the school year in the calendar year when they reach the age of 3 years until the end of the school year in the calendar year when they reach the age of 7 years. Children aged 3–5 years have the right to participate in preschool education in a nursery school, a preschool class in the primary school or another preschool education setting. It is compulsory for 6-year-old children to complete 1 year of preparatory preschool education.

Access to preschool education is uneven; it is much more accessible in cities/towns than in rural areas. Nursery schools and schools have not been established in some sparsely populated areas owing to small numbers of children. In addition, communes in these areas have very rarely chosen to establish preschool education units or centres close to children’s homes. Therefore, there are still considerable unfulfilled needs in the area of preschool education availability.

The measures being taken by the Ministry of Education and Science to tackle the shortage of ECEC places include:

• development of a network of preschool education institutions, and availability of various preschool education settings for preschool-aged children;
• provision on selected weekdays offered in preschool education units (zespół wychowania przedszkolnego) and preschool education centres (punktprzedszkolny);

• financial support from the state budget for local government units to satisfy preschool education needs at a faster pace.

The preschool education participation rates in the 2019/2020 school year, as compared with the previous school year, were as follows:

Preschool education participation rates

Six-year-olds may start full-time compulsory education in the first grade of the primary school, as parents are free to choose the education path they prefer for their 6-year-old children (preschool education or school education).

Compared with 2018/2019, the rate of participation in preschool education rose by 1.4 % for 3-year-olds, 2.6 % for 4-year-olds and 1.6 % for 5-year-olds in 2019/2020.

In 2019, the number of children participating in preschool education again grew significantly, to 1 413 700 (an increase of 20 800 from 2018).

In the 2019/2020 school year, the preschool education participation rate for 3- to 5-year-olds was 89.1 %, as compared with 87.4 % in the previous year. Preschool education institutions are attended by a much larger proportion of children in urban areas (94.9 %) than in rural areas (80.9 %).

Affordability

Children aged up to 3 years

Parents are required to cover the costs of their children’s attendance at and meals provided in a crèche, a kids’ club or a daycare provider setting (home-based provision). The amount of fees and the maximum amount to be charged for meals are determined by the competent local government bodies (the council of the commune (gmina), the council of the district (powiat) or the council of the regional assembly (sejmik wojewódzki)). The competent body may also lay down conditions for full or partial fee waivers. Fees in crèches and kids’ clubs administered by entities other than local government units are set by the bodies administering such institutions.

Crèche, kids’ club and daycare provider fees may be charged on a monthly or hourly basis.

The statutes of a crèche or kids’ club establish rules for setting fees for attendance and meals during a child’s absence.

Fees for attending crèches, kids’ clubs and daycare provider settings vary depending on the sector to which childcare institution entities belong. Fees charged to parents by entities in the public sector are lower than those in the private sector.

Children aged 3–6 years

For children from the age of 3 years, free-of-charge education and care activities are organised for at least 5 hours a day. Each commune decides the duration of free-of-charge education and care (not shorter than 5 hours per day). For 6-year-olds, preschool education is free of charge regardless of the duration of stay (parents pay for meals only). In the case of 5- and 6-year olds, if the distance between the child’s home and the school or nursery school exceeds 3 km, the commune is required to provide free transport to a public nursery school, another public preschool education setting or public school with a preschool class, and free care during transport, or to reimburse the costs of public transport.

Since 1 September 2013 (based on the 2013 amendment to the School Education Act (Ustawa o systemie oświaty), the level of fees that communes may charge parents has been limited to a maximum of PLN 1 (EUR 0.2) for each additional hour of preschool education (in addition to the 5-hour minimum that is free of charge). The commune may lay down conditions for full and partial fee waivers. Currently, this is regulated by the Act of 27 October 2017 on financing school education tasks (Ustawa z dnia 27 października 2017 o finansowaniu zadań oświatowych).

In order to apply fee reductions to parents with low incomes, communes have received an additional grant from the stage budget since 1 September 2013.

Public nursery schools can organise various additional classes, for example rhythmic gymnastics and an additional foreign language, but fees for such classes may not exceed PLN 1 (EUR 0.2) per hour.