Incompetent Polish education ministry - incomprehensible English recordings for exams

My son is getting worried about his matura in English, despite being a native speaker of English. He sat his mock exam recently (these are organised nationally in Poland) and couldn't understand the listening part. He said it was obviously scripted and recorded by Poles.

Grammar schools here do a fantastic job on very limited resources, but if all education ministry employees suddenly disappeared into a large black hole I think they could easily be replaced by post office canteen staff without any negative impact on quality or efficiency.

On a side issue, academic competitions here contain some real bloomers too.

I didn't know we have grammar schools in Poland ;)

An idea for you (it's not in a dismissive vein, I'm serious here): how about writing about the problem to the one of the national-wide news papers. They like such scoops, and I think it's, unfortunately, the only thing you can do. Just wait until the results.

I can hear the headlines: Matura which even a native speaker can't pass! ;)

Press - not a bad idea except it'd be dangerous for us. Educators the world over like to take revenge on people who belittle them.

"Grammar schools" - schools for older kids that have competitive entry requirements. Nothing else really gets the idea across in British English, even though grammar schools in the UK are 11+

Senior High / High School - nah

Then maybe it's better to stick with the Polish term "liceum"?


Do you believe that will affect your son's matura scores? I think you're exaggerating. The name is coded and it's checked by average teachers from a different school than your son's. Even if that was the teachers of your son's school you don't criticise them but MEN.

Really, no reason to be afraid. All in all matura was criticised many times, especially the Polish language and literature part.


So you're at (or in?) the standoff. There's no other way to do something about it. If you fill a complaint to MEN they might snub it.

are you telling us that your son has never heard english spoken by Poles.

All in all it's your langauge and if a native speaker can't comprehend that then there's something seriously wrong.

Shocking, isn't it ?

Hello Varsovian, I know what you're talking about. I work at a private Liceum and had to sit in on the mock English exams. The speeches are done by a man and a woman! The woman isn't too bad, but, and it's a large but like the butts of women in rap videos, the man was at times incomprehensible! He sounded like a country bumpkin eating marshmallows whilst coming down from an acid trip!! I am a native speaker, and at times I struggled to understand everything being said by the man.