Polish president opts son out of new health education classes, saying they “smuggle ideology into schools”

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Poland’s conservative, opposition-aligned President Karol Nawrocki has announced that he has decided to opt his son out of the government’s new health education classes, saying that they “smuggle ideology into schools”.

His decision has been criticised by the education minister, Barbara Nowacka, who says it will be “to the detriment” of Nawrocki’s son. She also condemned right-wing politicians and the Catholic church for spreading “lies” about the new subject.

In a post on social media on Saturday, Nawrocki announced that he and his wife, Marta Nawrocka, had opted their 15-year-old son, Antoni, out of health education. The president wrote that, despite the “innocent-sounding name of this subject”, it is being used “to smuggle ideology and politics into Polish schools”.

That language reflects criticism by Poland’s Catholic church and the national-conservative opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, which claim that health education will “morally corrupt children” by introducing elements of sex education that are “anti-family” and “gender destabilising”.

The new subject is optional, with children automatically signed up for it but parents able to opt them out until 25 September. Last month, just ahead of the start of the school year on 1 September, the Catholic episcopate appealed to parents to withdraw their children from the classes.

In his announcement, Nawrocki, who was elected with the support of PiS, wrote that, while “school is primarily a place of learning, [it is] also a space for building respect for the culture, traditions, and Christian values from which our civilisation emerges”.

The president also has a seven-year-old daughter, Katarzyna, who started the first grade of primary school this year. However, health education only begins in fourth grade. Nawrocki has also adopted Daniel, his wife’s son from an earlier relationship, but he is 22 years old and no longer in school.

The president’s decision regarding Antoni was quickly criticised by figures from the education ministry, which has consistently denied claims by the church and conservative politicians that the new subject will introduce harmful ideas.

“Mr President, before you opt out…or get outraged, it’s really worth reading…the core curriculum!” wrote the head of the ministry, Barbara Nowacka, who noted that the subject covers topics such as prevention of disease and addiction, mental health, building relationships and respect for others.

“You, in particular, should care about children’s health and society’s trust in teachers who wisely and sensitively impart knowledge,” added the minister in a post on social media.

Later, speaking to state broadcaster TVP, Nowacka lamented that “clearly, some right-wing politicians wanted to play politics in schools” and said that “many lies have been told” about health education, “even from the [church] pulpit”. She said the president’s decision would be “to the detriment of the child”.

The minister denied that health education involves any politics or ideology. Addressing the fact that it includes elements relating to gender identity and sexual orientation, she said that “we can’t hide the fact that LGBT+ people exist” and argued that children need to learn about such issues.

Ryszard Petru, an MP from the ruling coalition – which ranges from left to centre right – also condemned the “hysteria” being created around health education by PiS, which he said is a “backward party that fears knowledge and hinders access to it”.

Petru said that the government had made a mistake by making health education optional. Initially, it had been planned for the classes to be mandatory. But, after criticism and protests from conservative groups, it was eventually decided to make allow parents to opt out.

As the deadline for opting children out of health education has not yet passed, it remains unclear what proportion of pupils will attend. The final figures are likely to be released around the end of September or in early October.

In Kraków, Poland’s second-largest city and relatively liberal politically, deputy mayor Maria Klaman told local newspaper Dziennik Polski last Wednesday that so far around 20% of students had opted out, which is “less than we expected”.

However, in Czarny Dunajec, a small town around 80 kilometres south of Kraków, mayor Marcin Ratułowski told the Wirtualna Polska website that there has been “little interest in health education”.

Instead, residents have asked the authorities to finance an additional hour per week of Catholic catechism – another optional class, run by the church – to compensate for cuts to its teaching introduced by the current government.

An SW Research poll published on Saturday by news weekly Wprost found that 21% of parents said that they do not want their children to participate in the new subject, while only 18% said that they do (the remaining 61% of respondents said they did not have school-age children).

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Przemysław Keler/KPRP 

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.