Poland makes health education mandatory in schools but sex ed components to remain optional

Apr 10, 2026 | Education, Law, Society

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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 education minister has announced that health education, a subject introduced to schools this year but initially made optional following a conservative backlash against elements relating to sex education and gender, will become compulsory from the start of the new school year in September.

However, the parts of the course relating to sex education are to be separated and will remain optional, added Barbara Nowacka.

After a more liberal government took power from the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party at the end of 2023, it moved to introduce the new subject of health education, which replaced the former non-compulsory education for family life (WDŻ) classes.

Nowacka had hoped to make health education mandatory, saying it would help students “make informed health decisions and promote a healthy lifestyle”. However, concerns from more conservative elements of the ruling coalition resulted in it being made optional. It is taught from grade four upwards.

Ahead of the subject’s introduction in September 2025, the influential Catholic church appealed to parents not to allow their children to attend the classes, which it said are “anti-family”, “gender destabilising” and will “morally corrupt children”.

In the end, around 70% of parents opted their children out of the subject. Among them was right-wing, opposition-aligned president Karol Nawrocki, who said that the classes “smuggle ideology into schools”.

 

On Thursday this week, Nowacka confirmed that health education would become compulsory from the start of the new school year. But she added that elements relating to sexual health, which constitute around 10% of the course currently, would be separated and remain optional.

“Health education with all the necessary components regarding hygiene, exercise, mental health and nutrition will be mandatory,” she told broadcaster TVN.

“However, respecting certain constitutional conditions and the pressure from some groups that want to be able to decide whether children learn about sexual health from a professional teacher or…from the internet, these [sexual health elements] will be at the parents’ discretion,” added the minister.

When asked what this would mean in practice – for example, whether puberty would be counted as general health education or specific sexual education – Nowacka said that it would now be up to a team of doctors, teachers and other experts appointed by the ministry to decide how to divide topics.

Nowacka’s announcement was cautiously welcomed by Nawrocki’s chief of staff, Zbigniew Bogucki, who told broadcaster RMF that, if the subject did focus simply on health, “ the president will have no objections” to it.

However, many other conservatives expressed scepticism about the plans. Przemysław Czarnek, a former PiS education minister, tweeted a screenshot relating to Nowacka’s announcement and warned that the government is “coming for your children”.

Ordo Iuris, a prominent conservative legal group, called Nowacka’s proposal to split the courses a “tactical operation” that limits parents’ constitutional right to retain control over raising their children.

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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: Jacek Halicki / Wikimedia Commons (under CC BY-SA 4.0)

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