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Poland's Education Overhaul 'Reform26' β€” Less Memorisation, More Competence, Starting September

Talk of education reform is common in every country. Countries that actually follow through are far rarer. In 2026, Poland is determined to be one of them. From 1 September, Polish schools will begin implementing Reform26 (Reforma26) β€” officially subtitled "Compass of Tomorrow: A New School for a New Generation."

Contents

  1. Why Poland Is Changing Its Education Now
  2. What Changes on 1 September
  3. Less to Memorise, More to Think About β€” The Core Curriculum Shift
  4. Already Underway: Citizenship Education and Health Education
  5. The Teacher's Role Is Being Redefined
  6. The Phased Roadmap to 2031
  7. How It Compares to South Korea

1. Why Poland Is Changing Its Education Now

The Ministry of Education's diagnosis is stark: the current school system is not preparing students for the world they will actually inhabit.

The existing curriculum has been built around subject-by-subject knowledge dumps, with students expected to absorb and reproduce vast amounts of information on exams. In a world where ChatGPT retrieves most factual information in seconds, pure memorisation has rapidly lost its premium. What has gained value instead is the ability to critically evaluate information, collaborate to solve problems, and connect knowledge across domains.

Poland also faces demographic change and a rapidly shifting labour market. There is broad consensus among policymakers, educators, and parents that the system needs to prioritise adaptability and the capacity to keep learning β€” not the accumulation of fixed knowledge. Reform26 is the institutional response to that consensus.

2. What Changes on 1 September

1 September 2026 is the official starting point. On that date, the new core curriculum enters into force in preschools and in grades 1 and 4 of primary school.

The reason for this phased approach rather than a simultaneous system-wide rollout is deliberate caution. Changing everything at once risks confusion; a staggered rollout allows the new curriculum to embed properly before being expanded. Students entering under the new curriculum carry it forward as they progress, while existing students continue under the old system until the changeover reaches their year.

In September 2027, the reform extends to grade 1 of secondary schools. The full transition across all years and levels β€” including a reformed format for the Matura (university entrance exam) β€” will be complete by 2031–2032.

3. Less to Memorise, More to Think About β€” The Core Curriculum Shift

The most significant change is not just what students learn, but how the curriculum is structured. Three elements stand out.

First, there is far less to memorise. The new curriculum is deliberately leaner and more coherent. Each subject focuses on the key concepts and competences students must genuinely master, rather than listing exhaustive factual content. The operating principle is: learn less, understand more deeply.

Second, practical and project-based activities expand substantially. Passive instruction gives way to exploration, creation, and collaboration. Cross-subject integrated projects β€” requiring students to draw on knowledge from multiple disciplines simultaneously β€” play a significantly larger role.

Third, assessment changes fundamentally. Descriptive, feedback-oriented evaluation replaces score-centred grading, especially in the earlier years. Teachers are expected to document what specific competences a student has developed and where improvement is needed β€” a shift that makes the teacher's professional judgement more central than a number on a scale.

4. Already Underway: Citizenship Education and Health Education

Reform26 did not begin on an arbitrary date. The groundwork was laid in September 2025, when two new subjects were introduced in Polish schools nationwide.

The first is Citizenship Education, covering how democracy works, community participation, rights and responsibilities, and media literacy. Rather than delivering civic facts, the subject is designed around experience β€” helping students think and act as actual members of a society.

The second is Health Education, encompassing physical health, mental wellbeing, stress management, and digital wellness. With adolescent mental health deteriorating across Europe, the inclusion of this subject as a formal part of the curriculum represents a deliberate policy choice: schools are not only knowledge transmitters, they are responsible for helping young people navigate life.

Both subjects embody the philosophy behind Reform26. A school's job is not just to fill students with information but to equip them for life as citizens.

5. The Teacher's Role Is Being Redefined

No curriculum reform survives contact with the classroom without teachers who understand and commit to it. Reform26 takes this seriously. Supporting and empowering teachers is built into the architecture of the reform, not bolted on as an afterthought.

The new curriculum grants teachers significantly more professional discretion. Core content and competence targets are set by the national framework β€” but how those targets are reached is the teacher's decision. This reflects the principle: the state sets the learning goals; the teacher chooses the method.

Accompanying this autonomy is a commitment to substantially expanded teacher education and professional development. Teachers need to actually know how to implement project-based and competency-centred instruction, not just be told to do it. The reform includes structured support for in-service training and mechanisms for sharing effective practice across schools.

6. The Phased Roadmap to 2031

Reform26 is a long-term transformation process, not a single event. The official timeline:

  • September 2025: New subjects β€” Citizenship Education and Health Education β€” introduced nationwide
  • September 2026: New core curriculum β€” preschool, primary grades 1 and 4
  • September 2027: New core curriculum β€” secondary school grade 1
  • 2031–2032: Complete transition across all years; reformed Matura format takes effect

This schedule reflects lessons from Poland's own history of education reform. Rapid, simultaneous national rollouts have previously caused significant classroom disruption. The phased approach trades speed for stability.

7. How It Compares to South Korea

Watching Poland's Reform26 from a South Korean perspective is instructive.

South Korea has also been pursuing competency-centred education through its revised 2022 national curriculum, with the high school credit system (κ³ κ΅ν•™μ μ œ) pointing in a similar direction. But the structural contradiction remains unresolved: as long as university admissions are determined almost entirely by a single standardised exam β€” the Suneung β€” the curriculum reforms have limited reach. No matter how the textbooks change, schools inevitably converge on exam preparation.

Poland is reforming the curriculum and the assessment system together. The Matura, too, will be updated to match the new educational philosophy. That coherence between what is taught and how it is evaluated is arguably the difference between a genuine system change and a surface-level one.

Which country's reform will prove more effective will take years to judge. But Poland's most important decision may simply have been to start by asking the right question: What is school actually for?

Sources

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Poland's Education Overhaul 'Reform26' β€” Less Memorisation, More Competence, Starting September | MINSSAM.COM