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I have a "zero" chance to succeed in Poland - I do not have a degree! [93]
About Polish schooling system, it's probably different in different places and it depends on different teachers, probably as anywhere else. The only thing that I didn't like about my primary was the narrow mindness of polish literature teachers who were only rewarding students who were following the one and only right way to interpret a poem or a book (imposed by the teacher or "teachers manual"), every original thought was quickly exstinguished..
that was around 8-9 years ago so maybe something changes, but I remember it as a tool to kill creativity and individualism. I heard similar stuff plenty of times from my friends, on the other hand there were planty of teachers who weren't limiting their pupils like that.
As for high school I can only speak for IT education, from what I heard from my friends that were on an exchange with Sokrates/Erazmus they usually stated that abroad teachers are more friendly, there are lots of expensive tools in laboratory classes and due to which they can learn about more advanced technologies then they could in Poland, most of different classes are easier then in Poland and teachers spend more time to explain certain problems. Also different subjects are organised in a witty way so that it's not only just about absorbing knowledge, there was time for some theory and then practise and implementing it in real life situations and then again some theory and so on.
Also teachers get more personal with students.
In Poland there is (usually) a huge gap in relations between students and teachers. After a lecture teachers just hide in their little rooms and that's the end of interaction (it's not a rule but it's often like that). There are classes that are there just for the sake of prolonging the period of work for some old professors who are teaching really dated stuff with the university not wanting to dismiss them ( And that's also a usual cause for students cheating instead of memorizing vintage knowladge which just shouldn't be there anymore especially if it's an IT university ). There's more memorizing stuff and less learning how to use it. For example we had to memorize shitloads of transforms just for the sake of remembering them instead of using them to solve math problems - from what I heard it's totally different in other countries. Some knowledge is always there in the books - why memorizing it when you can always look it up, and problem solving isn't that easy without some practise ( it's also another reason for studens cheating ).
It may look like I'm a devils advocate here, and maybe I am, I admit that I cheated during some exams - through the period of my studying I was choosing subjects that were interesting to me and promising for my future job and I was passing them properly - and cheated at some that were imposed by the IT course at my Uni. I think there's still a gap between polish and f.i. british high school education model. Mainly because of the difference in money that has been pumped into educational system in both of these countries, and because of the post communism roots of the staff. Also methods and selection of subjects tend to be flawed in some Unis.
There are great polish scientists the problem is they are beeing bought by foreign schools to teach and invent - another thing with beeing a poor country.
There also should be a competition in schools, but not as it is right now, it should be a healthy competition, it's not a candy world, you won't always hear "you're a winner" as in US schools - because once you start working you'll hear "you're not a winner, you're a looser" from time to time, there were some who heard that and went berserk shooting at innocent people.. maybe because of the "you're the last winner in the race" model of education.