Educational Effectiveness of Catholic Schools in Poland Based on the Results of External Exams

Abstract

Church education boasts a rich history of achievements. European church education (referred to as Catholic) was already present at the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries and in Poland at the end of the 11th (schools educating future members of the clergy). In Poland, the collapse of church education was marked by the communist system (1945–1989), and a dynamic revival was possible thanks to the democratic change in 1989. At present, Catholic schools, i.e., schools run by church legal entities and schools run by other legal or natural persons recognized as Catholic by decree of the diocesan bishop, entertain the same possibilities with respect to setup and operations on equal rights. Their number and proportion of the overall student population remain relatively stable. As the results published by District Examination Boards and rankings of Catholic schools show, the teaching efficiency of Catholic elementary schools is higher than average. High schools reach a very good level of education as well, although in their case, the dominance of Catholic schools is not in place. Teaching efficiency is one of many factors that influence the well-established position of Catholic schools.

1. Introduction

European Catholic education boasts a rich history (Gleeson 2015; Mąkosa 2020; Rynio 2017; Cichosz 2012, 2019). In the institutional sense, its beginnings can be traced back in the Edict of Milan announced in 313 A.D., recognizing freedom of religion; and in the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 A.D., which resulted in the disappearance of state schools. This gap was successfully filled by church education, which for centuries shaped its own identity and continually gained supporters (d’Irsay 1933; Aigrain 1935; Cichosz 2019, 2008; Kuźma 2011). The situation in Poland was similar to that in Europe. “Catholic” church education was most likely already present in the 9th–10th century (Cichosz 2007). This appears to be confirmed by the evidence that priests functioned as educators in Poland during the times of Wladislaw Herman (1079–1102). Political and social conditions have always influenced education, as demonstrated throughout history. The post-war years of communist Poland in the second half of the 20th century clearly limited the educational system (Cichosz 2019). It was only after the political and social changes of 1989 that conditions for the revival of Catholic education became favorable. Undoubtedly, this process was facilitated by the Act on the education system published on 7 September 1991, which enabled the establishment of both non-public (private) and public schools (financed by local government units) (UoSO 1991; Maj 2002).

2. The Place of Catholic Schools in the Polish Education System

Contemporary church norms grant the right to use the adjective “catholic” to schools that function under the supervision of the appropriate church authority, church legal entity (diocese, parish, religious congregation), and those that have obtained the right to use this name under an act issued by the competent authority. The Congregation for Catholic Education states that these are “all schools and institutes dealing with pre-university education and training; they are schools dependent on the church authority, intended for the formation of lay youth and operating within the competence of a given Congregation” (Kongregacja do spraw Wychowania Katolickiego 2009).

In accordance with the provisions of the Act of 16 December 2016 Educational Law currently under the Polish legal system, there are two types of schools and institutions: public and non-public ones (UPO 2021: Article 8(1)). They can be set up and run by a local government unit (LGU), other legal person, or a natural person (UPO 2021: art. 8(2)), while LGUs are allowed to set up and run public schools and institutions (UPO 2021: art. 8 sct. 3). The Act states that legal persons and natural persons may set up schools and non-public institutions after obtaining an appropriate entry in the register kept by the local government unit, which is responsible for running the appropriate type of schools and institutions (UPO 2021: Article 168(1)). The condition for registering the entry is, among others, the need for the founder (leading authority) to submit a positive opinion of the superintendent of education concerning meeting the provisions of art. 14 sec. 3 of the Education Law Act, and in the case of vocational schools, an opinion of the voivodeship labor market council. The consequence of the changes made in 2016 is the fact that the possibility of functioning schools without the rights of public schools has been excluded—both public and non-public schools acquire the rights of public schools the moment they become registered (UPO 2021: Article 14(3)). The governing body (owner) of public schools are local government units or other legal and natural persons. On the other hand, the governing bodies of non-public schools are natural persons or legal persons other than local government units.

From a student perspective, it is important that public and non-public schools with the rights of public schools allow students to obtain state certificates and diplomas (UPO 2021: Article 14(2)), which in turn enables them to take exams conducted by Regional Examination Commissions and, consequently, receive a certificate confirming the attainment of the level of education specified by law. In the current legal system, public and non-public schools differ primarily in tuition and recruitment methods. Public schools are free of charge, while non-public schools allow for tuition. The difference is also noticeable in the way recruitment is conducted. Public schools participate in recruitment conducted by local governments, in accordance with the rules and deadlines set by local government units (UPO 2021: art. 14, sct. 1 point 2). In contrast, the principles of recruitment to private schools are decided by the schools’ governing bodies or directorates.

Polish Catholic schools that are run by church legal persons, or by other legal or natural persons recognized as Catholic by the decree of the diocesan bishop, have an equal opportunity to be founded and operated under equal conditions for all schools. In recent decades, since the political transformation in Poland in 1989, it has been possible to develop and consolidate the position of Catholic schools in the Polish education system, preserving the character and specificity shaped by the Church over the centuries (Cichosz 2016, 2010). In 2001, there were 350 Catholic institutions in Poland, and three years later there were already 413, comprising slightly over 1% of all students nationally (Figure 1). According to the data of the Catholic Schools Council, including all Catholic schools, there are currently 493 schools operating at all levels of pre-university education (RSK 2022). They account for 1.8% of all primary schools, 3.5% of general secondary schools and less than 1% of technical secondary schools (Figure 2).

Figure 1 illustrates the increase in the number of Catholic institutions in 1999. It should be noted, however, that this state of affairs was influenced, among other factors, by the education reform implemented this year. As a result, the existing primary schools were divided into six-year primary schools and three-year lower secondary schools. The dynamic increase in the number of Catholic schools recorded in this period did not apply to vocational schools, in which a downward trend was recorded (Maj 2002; RSK 1999).

Due to another education reform prepared by the Ministry of National Education in 2016 and announced in the Journal of Laws (PUPO 2016), as of 1 September 2019, lower secondary schools were removed from the Polish system, and eighth-grade primary school and four-year high school systems were restored. The presence of Catholic schools in the Polish educational system seems to be currently stable. As

Table 1. Breakdown of the number of Catholic schools in the first years after the political transformation and now.

Year	Number of Schools by Type
	Primary	Junior High School	Professional	High School
1989	–	–	3	21
1993	18	–	6	54
1999	57	63	37	119
2001	71	105	33	141
2003	96	140	25	144
2004	100	143	27	143
2020	259	–	23	144

Note: (1) In 1989 and 1993, and since 2019, there have been no lower secondary schools in the educational structure. (2) Vocational school is defined as technical and basic schools. (3) Secondary school includes lower theological seminaries and post-secondary schools.

shows, the dynamic growth in the number of Catholic schools observed from the initial period after the political transformation in 1999–2004, to after the 2016 reform, remains at the previously established level (EB 2021a).

Available statistics show that the popularity of Catholic schools among students and their parents has been steadily growing. After an initial explosion, their importance continues, and popularity is still slightly increasing. In the 2001–02 school year, 0.74% of the entire population of students studied in Catholic schools. In 2018–19 it increased to 1.44%, and in 2020–21, with the decreasing population of school-age children and youth, Catholic school attendance was 1.47% of all students (

Table 2. Catholic school student population compared to total student population in Poland in selected years.

Year	Number of Catholic Schools	Number of Students in Catholic Schools	Total Number of Students in Poland	%
2001/2002	400	50,000	6,800,000	0.74%
2005/2006	451	51,000	6,550,013	0.78%
2010/2011	515	57,000	5,505,946	1.03%
2015/2016	608	66,321	5,198,793	1.28%
2016/2017	610	66,365	4,952,219	1.34%
2017/2018	527	67,589	4,905,435	1.38%
2018/2019	467	70,556	4,904,101	1.44%
2020/2021	487	72,469	4,931,461	1.47%

).

As one can see, Catholic education calls for constant appreciation and development. Throughout history, Catholic schools have been excellent centers for educating Christian elites. They are forges of minds, spirit and culture (Latin ars artium et scientia scientiarum) (Cichosz 2019, 2020). This thesis is confirmed by the results of exams taken at the end of individual educational stages and standings that are systematically announced by District Examination Boards, as exemplified by comparisons published annually by Perspektywy magazine, widely recognized as a reliable information source.

3. Primary Schools

In August 2021, District Examination Boards published complete and detailed lists of external exam results—the eighth-grade exam and the matriculation exam—obtained this year by individual schools in individual districts. Having such rich data, albeit for only one school year, permits an attempt to be made to assess the didactic effectiveness of a group of schools—in this case, Catholic schools—against the background of the entire population. Unfortunately, we do not have data relating to previous years, as District Examination Boards did not publish the results of the eighth-grader exam obtained in individual institutions, and the lists appearing in the local press are methodologically unreliable.

In the 2020–21 school year, there were 14,380 primary schools in the Republic of Poland, including 1524 non-public primary schools1 for children and youth (including first-level general music schools), attended by 162,559 students. i.e., 4.9% of the total number of 3,332,531 students at primary schools for children and youth. This number also includes 288 Catholic primary schools (EB 2021b) representing 2% of all facilities, with approximately 45,000 students (1.4% of all primary school students and 28% of non-public school students) (Figure 3).

In May 2021, 357,060 students took the eighth-grade exam (97% of all eighth graders; the rest took the exam at a later date or were exempted from it) (CKE 2021a, 2021b). Based on the data published by individual DEBs, it was possible to prepare a breakdown of results for schools from all over the country. The data include 330,162 test takers from 11,833 schools (OKE 2021). For the purposes of this study, only 1%, i.e., 120 schools with the highest exam results, were analyzed. For these schools, the total exam score was calculated according to the following formula:

$$\mathit{S}=\frac{Sp}{60}+\frac{Sm}{47}+\frac{Sa}{66}$$

(1)

where:

S—total exam score ratio;

Sp—the average scores of the test takers from a given school in the Polish language in percentage points;

Sm—the average scores of the math test takers from a given school in percentage points;

Sa—the average English language scores of the test takers from a given school in percentage points.

These average scores were divided by the national average score on a given examination paper to determine a percentage. If we adopt such a method of comparison, the S ratio for a “perfectly average” school—one in which students obtained average scores in all examination subjects at the level of the national average of the test-takers—would have a value of 3. However, the maximum value of S—provided the school’s average result from all three exams amounts to 100%—is 5.31. It is worth noting that the result of 41 test takers from the best school in this ranking, Private Primary School No. 92 in Warsaw (S = 4.95), does not differ significantly from the maximum score.

In the analyzed list of 120 schools with the highest exam score ratios, there are as many as 99 non-public schools, including 23 Catholic schools (19% of all schools in the list) with 859 test takers (22% of test takers from schools included in the list). The quoted data allow the following conclusions to be drawn: (1) among the schools achieving the highest scores in the eighth-grade exam, non-public schools dominate, accounting for 74% of the 120 schools in the ranking, while the total number of non-public schools is only 4.9% of all such institutions in the country. (2) The presence of Catholic schools among schools achieving the highest scores in the eighth-grade exam is clear, as they constitute 19% of this group, although they comprise only 2% of the total number of institutions.

Bearing in mind the significant diversity of institutions in each of the groups listed below, we can say that the highest scores of the eighth-grade exam were achieved by non-public schools run by associations, natural or legal persons, followed by Catholic schools, and finally, public schools.

4. Comprehensive High Schools (Licea Ogólnokształcące)

As in the case of primary schools, District Examination Boards have published detailed results of the matriculation exam (matura) in all schools (CKE 2021b). For the purposes of this analysis, however, previously processed data were used—namely, the ranking of schools published for several years by the educational portal “Perspektywy” (Perspektywy 2021a).

In the 2020–21 school year, there were 2315 general secondary schools for youth in Poland, attended by 643,581 students (Gov 2020), of which 672 (29%) were non-public schools, educating a total of 75,501 students (11.7% of all high school students). There were 148 Catholic high schools (6.4% of the total number of high schools) (Figure 4). It is worth noting that the share of the educational market in this area is different than in the case of primary schools; there are fewer educational entities, and the share of non-public institutions and Catholic schools is clearly greater.

The Perspektywy.pl portal publishes three high school rankings: matura ranking (Perspektywy 2021b), taking into account the results of the matriculation exam at the basic and extended levels; Olympic ranking, where schools are ordered according to successes achieved in national and international science Olympics (Perspektywy 2021c); and a collective ranking of schools (Perspektywy 2021a), combining both of the above classifications (Perspektywy 2022a).

The top 100 schools in the 2021 matura ranking include 20 non-public schools, including six Catholic schools. This result corresponds to the fact that the latter account for slightly more than 6% of the total number of high schools. There are significant differences between the distribution of the results (scores) of the eighth-grade exam and the results of the matura exam. In the case of primary schools, the best results were achieved by non-public schools, including Catholic schools, whose number among schools achieving the best results was many times higher (for Catholic schools, 9 times; for all non-public schools, 15 times) than their share of the entire education market. Regarding the matriculation exam (matura), the share of schools of various types in the group achieving the highest scores is completely different. Public schools account for 80% of the qualified institutions, and private schools for 20% (with a share of nearly 30% of the total number of institutions), including 6% of Catholic schools (with a 6.4% share of the total number of schools). Therefore, while Catholic primary schools achieve very high scores compared to the population, the share of the best Catholic high schools in the top of the matriculation classification generally corresponds to their number compared to all secondary schools.

The presented matriculation ranking is based on the results of the 2021 matura exam. It is important to determine the extent to which the 2021 results correlate with the results from previous years. Note that the cited lists include the school’s position in the ranking from 2020, 2019 and 2018 as well, in total from the previous four years. It turns out that the composition of the top 100 rankings is very stable, and fluctuations do not exceed 12%. In 2021, only 12 schools qualified for the top 100 which were not listed in 2020 (Perspektywy 2020), 17 schools in the current top 100 did not qualify in 2019 (Perspektywy 2019), and 16 schools did not qualify in 2018 (Perspektywy 2018).

The ranking of Olympic schools (Perspektywy 2021c, 2021d) requires a separate analysis. The data taken from the Ranking of Olympic Schools on the Perspektywy.pl website show that there are nine Catholic schools among the 100 institutions achieving the highest scores in national and international Olympics. This is clearly greater than those in the matriculation ranking (six institutions) and in the aggregate ranking (five institutions). These schools achieved scores from 100 to 70.66 points (the scores are related to the score of the highest-ranked school, which receives a score of 100). The next two schools achieved a score above 30, and six schools above 20, while 88 schools in the top 100 ranking scored below 20 (compared to the highest score). Among these 88, there are nine Catholic schools, ranked 25th, 26th, 41st, 42nd, 54th, 57th, 75th, 77th and 84th (Perspektywy 2022b). In total, this proves that there are several schools in the country “specializing” in Olympic achievement, for which other institutions form a ranking background, with a minimal chance to be in the same league. Such a situation has been taking place for years (as shown by the previous rankings of Perspektywy.pl). Five Catholic schools and a total of 24 non-public schools were in the top 100 of the collective ranking, taking into account the results of the matriculation examination and successes in the Olympics. This roughly corresponds to the share of these schools—both Catholic and non-public in general—in the total number of institutions of this type.

5. Conclusions

The analyses performed, based on the so-called educational rankings, confirm the difference in the situation at the level of secondary schools and among primary schools as compared to public (state) institutions, allowing the following conclusions to be drawn:

• Over the last 30 years, Catholic schools have found their place in Polish education, significant enough to be included in analyses of the current state and in forecasting future data.
• At the primary school level, the didactic effectiveness of Catholic schools is much higher than average, although they are surpassed in this respect by the best non-public primary schools run by other entities.
• At the upper secondary and secondary school levels, the teaching effectiveness of Catholic schools is equal to good public schools. At this level, non-public schools, including Catholic ones, do not dominate the top rankings. Here there are mainly public high schools, which are in the majority among schools that are successful in national and international competitions.

In view of the above, it is necessary to indicate that although the didactic effectiveness in Polish Catholic institutions (the subject of this study), when measured only by the scores of external examinations (the so-called hard data), is one of the many key aspects of educational operation, it is certainly not the most important. What is more, the presented rankings do not take into account the input level of competences of students within a given school population. In the past, this was to be performed by analysis of educational added value, understood as an increase in students’ knowledge as a result of a given educational process (EWD 2013). Hence, even in the field of didactic work, the results of the rankings cannot be treated as the basis for evaluating the entire work of the school, although this educational element is undoubtedly encouraging and seems to confirm the validity of the thesis of the elitism of Polish Catholic school education.