Curriculum, subjects, number of hours
Post-secondary schools provide programmes inmore than 20 groups of subject areas, including fine arts, economics and administration, medical studies, engineering and technology, agriculture, forestry and fishery, transport and communication, services and others. Post-secondary schools currently offer training programmes for individual occupations in accordance with the Regulation of the Minister of National Education of 13 March 2017 on the classification of occupations for vocational education (Rozporządzenie Ministra Edukacji Narodowej z dnia 13 marca 2017 r. w sprawie klasyfikacji zawodów szkolnictwa zawodowego). The Regulation is gradually being replaced by a new one: the Regulation of the Minister of National Education of 15 February 2019 on the general aims and tasks of sector-based vocational education and the classification of occupations for sector-based vocational education (Rozporządzenie Ministra Edukacji Narodowej z dnia 15 lutego 2019 r. w sprawie ogólnych celów i zadań kształcenia w zawodach szkolnictwa branżowego oraz klasyfikacji zawodów szkolnictwa branżowego) (applied since the school year 2019/2020 in, for example, the 1st semester of a post-secondary school). Economics and administration, medical service, services and IT / computing have invariably remained the most popular areas of study for years.
Outline timetables for post-secondary schools are currently set out in the Regulation of the Minister of National Education of 3 April 2019 on the outline timetables for public schools (Rozporządzenie Ministra Edukacji Narodowej z dnia 3 kwietnia 2019 r. w sprawie ramowych planów nauczania dla publicznych szkół).
OUTLINE TIMETABLES FOR POST-SECONDARY SCHOOLS
- The minimum weekly number of teaching / class hours for compulsory classes (the total number of hours is not specified) in post-secondary schools:
| No. | Compulsory classes | Full-time day programmes: | Total in the 2-year education cycle | Other full-time programmes: | Total in the 2-year education cycle | Part-time extramural programmes: | Total in the 2-year education cycle | |||||
| Weekly number of hours per grade (in each semester) | Weekly number of hours per grade (in each semester | Number of hours per semester | ||||||||||
| I | II | I | II | I | II | III | IV | |||||
| 1. | Vocational training | 25 | 25 | 50 | 18 | 19 | 37 | 165 | 165 | 175 | 175 | 680 |
| 2. | Physical education | 3 | 3 | 6 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 3. | Introduction to entrepreneurship | - | - | - | 1 | - | 1 | 10 | 10 | - | - | 20 |
| Total | 28 | 28 | 56 | 19 | 19 | 38 | 175 | 175 | 175 | 175 | 700 | |
The school head distributes the hours for vocational training for a given occupation between theoretical and practical training. However, the number of hours for practical training may not be lower than 50% of the total number of hours allocated to vocational training.
The subject ‘Introduction to entrepreneurship’ is taught to post-secondary school students / learners who did not take it at an earlier education stage.
- Post-secondary schools also offer additional classes and sign language classes if the body administering a given school allocates hours for such classes.
- Furthermore, students / learners are offered counselling and guidance (so-called psychological and educational support) classes which aim to address their individual developmental and educational needs.
- Post-secondary school students undertake compulsory practical placements. The duration of a placement depends on the needs specific to a given occupation; it is based on the core curriculum for vocational education.
Teaching Methods and Materials
Subject teachersarefree to choose teaching methods and approaches, though this is partly determined by the number of students per class and teaching and learning facilities and resources available in the school (for example, the number of computers or other teaching aids).