In the third episode of the series "Human 2040", entitled "I study" with analysts from Polityka Insight we examine the possible directions of development of education in the future. Will schools start to focus on individual competences? Will studies still play an important role in the labor market? What courses and qualifications may be in demand? You can read all about it in the following article, which looks at trends such as the individualisation of teaching, micro-courses and the development of artificial intelligence. Andrzej Bobiński, managing director of Polityka Insight, talks about how we will be learning in 2040 in a podcast with Prof. Dariusz Jemielniak, social scientist and head of the Chair of Management in Networked and Digital Societies at Kozminski University.

THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION HAS ADOPTED A PERSONALIZED CURRICULUM (SPP)

Despite criticism, Poland's public schools will become more like those of most Western countries.

Teaching methods in middle and high schools will be changed. The basic slogan of the reform is personalization, i.e. adapting the methods to the students' capabilities and needs. In public schools, each student will have an individual teaching path, along the lines of solutions that already exist in private institutions and in most Western countries. The personalized curriculum will be developed based on competence studies, tests and assessments from primary school. The curriculum requirements and the mandatory reading and multimedia list have been retained. Pupils' knowledge and skills will continue to be checked through New High School Examinations of 2030. 

Each student will learn at their own pace, using personalized materials. Teaching curricula will be created by artificial intelligence and the Polish government has purchased a license to use the EDU_CATE.ME software created by the leader of e-learning solutions – the Finnish and American company Mobira-MacIntosh. As part of the technological offset, Mobira-MacIntosh will set up a special purpose vehicle with a selected Polish company. The consortium will develop a new generation of e-textbooks with multimedia educational materials.

The teachers’ trade unions , educators and parent groups, which have united under the “SER - Stop education robotization,” are most opposed to the change. Teachers are vigorously opposed to the role they think they will play in the educational process – they do not want to assume the role of “human scientific assistants.” Parents, on the other hand, criticise the fact that school is treated as a mere educational establishment, without a social element. They refer to a report by Enseignants Sans Frontières, in which authors prove that the lack of interaction between pupils is slowing down the development of emotional intelligence and the exclusive focus on mental work impairs creativity and imagination. 

The discussion on the “digital gap” created by the Bring Your Own Device (BOYD) principle provides further arguments. According to experts, the new system can lead to inequalities among pupils as they have equipment with different computational capacity and different generations of holographic cards. A potential solution could be the use of a hybrid system, which Switzerland and Bulgaria, among others, are working on. This system includes a combination of personalization technologies for the teaching of scientific subjects with the traditional teaching model for humanities. 

BANK GOSPODARSTWA KRAJOWEGO (BGK) WILL SUPPORT MICRO-TRAINING

The development of the market for blockchain based micro-training will increase the number of Poles who engage in continuous learning.

The market for online courses has been growing for more than twenty years. The use of blockchain-based certification has proved to be a breakthrough, as employers started to look more favourably at micro-training and decreased their focus on formal higher education. Poles are increasingly completing courses at different national and international universities, defending their theses before the national examination board. Last year, the number of defended bachelor theses exceeded 50%. Higher education institutions struggling with a shrinking number of students who want to learn in the Bologna system (three or five years) are losing out. In Asia, where the micro-training market is growing at the fastest pace, most universities have already gone bankrupt. Experts predict that this trend will soon emerge in Europe.

BGK announced that it would grant non-interest-bearing educational loans to all Poles over 18 years of age. The funding may be used for training that will conclude in receiving national accreditation. The bank will give preference to Polish training, but it does not exclude the possibility of funding education in other renowned scientific centers within the territory of the European Union. This is to prevent the dominance of American and Chinese units in the micro-training industry.

The Polish Chamber of Digital Education Courses (PICKE) has been lobbying for the implementation of the certification and financing program of micro-training for many years. Its representatives have pointed out the enormous competition from foreign courses, especially from outside the European Union, and the deterioration of the higher education system by unreliable private companies offering low-quality micro-diplomas. According to the PICKE, the new program will contribute to the development of the entire education sector and the creation of products that will be able to compete internationally. However, the change in the position of public universities was a breakthrough. Fearing marginalization, the Conference of Academic Rectors of Polish Schools decided to support this program. The academic community expects the accreditation system to eliminate low quality micro-diplomas from the market and increase demand for university-offered courses.

At the conference initiating the program, representatives of the government pointed out the positive impact of the program on persons aged 50+. The BGK measures are one of the elements of the government support program for older people who find it difficult to find employment following the increase in retirement age in 2035.

ENTREPRENEURS CALL FOR A RETURN TO SOFT SKILLS

Today, representatives of the Association of Private and Self-Employed Employers (ZPPS) called on the prime minister to change the education system. The ZPPS and the growing shortage of soft skills.

At a press conference on Wednesday, the president of the association called for a round table for education to build soft competences. In its appeal, the ZPPS points to excessive number of programmers and errors in the reform of the education system, repeated by each successive government. The association opposes changes in the personalized curricullum and criticizes support for micro-training at the expense of humanities studies in the Bologna system. According to entrepreneurs, profiling the education system into the political interests of governments is short-sighted and generates systemic risk when the Millenials retire.

Personalization and optimization of the education system is needed, but it cannot be the sole objective of the reforms. Ignoring the current and future needs of employers and setting up the education system under the influence of employees threatens to lead the Poles to work for foreign companies. National companies will also have problems with succession, as lack of managers with appropriate soft skills is already a problem.

The ZPPS calls for a symbolic “return to the Polish university.” Employers are convinced that they suffer from a shortage of workers with soft skills. Above all, they point to the ability to think critically, learn actively, work in a group and communicate. In the view of the association, workers are unable to self-organize their work and there is a lack of flexibility, i.e. the ability to change tasks quickly. The ZPPS also pointed out problems with the psychological stability of employees, resulting in increasing conflicts in the workplace and a drop in productivity, in particular because of depression caused by loneliness.