Polish students face heavy workloads; reforms aim to ease burdens by restructuring class hours and subjects.
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Polish students are heavily burdened with schoolwork, a situation exacerbated by the 2016 abolition of gimnazja and curriculum changes that placed three years of content into grades seven and eight. Despite efforts to reduce homework, Polish students spend significant time in school; average seventh and eighth graders attend up to 32 hours weekly, more in bilingual classes, with additional extracurricular activities making it a full-time job. The final two years of primary school focus heavily on preparing for the eighth-grade exam. Research indicates that students spend between 13 and 18 hours studying at home per week. This intense workload continues into secondary education, with high school students having 31 to 34 mandatory lessons weekly in grades I-III, and up to 36 hours in technical schools due to vocational subjects. While the Ministry of National Education plans reforms starting in 2026 to redistribute hours and ease the burden on grades seven and eight by integrating certain subjects, these changes will not significantly alter total time spent in school. Comparisons with other countries show that Polish students spend fewer mandatory hours in school over eight years than the OECD average. In contrast, Spanish and Greek primary education models feature more evenly distributed weekly hours across different age groups and include a broader range of required subjects.
