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.Single-digit inflation was achieved by 1998, al-/though the zloty currency underwent a gradual devaluation.This wasaided by generous debt-forgiveness and rescheduling agreements by ex-ternal creditors.The foreign debt nationally totaled $42.8 billion, andrepayments were due to start up again by the early years of the new cen-tury with the aim of repaying the Paris Club by 2014 and the LondonClub by 2024.Foreign trade balances fluctuated during the 1990s but went intogrowing deficit by the decade s end.Poland had, by then, been com-pletely reintegrated into the world market, while the westward shift awayfrom ex-East European Communist partners was completed.About two-thirds of trade was with the EU (about a third with Germany), with Italy,Russia, France, Netherlands, UK, and the Czech Republic being its nextmost significant trading partners.Unfortunately much of Poland sexports are now in raw materials and semiprocessed products.The chal-lenge of achieving competitiveness in higher technology and manufac-turing still has to be faced.Regional neighbors in the Central EuropeanFree Trade Agreement (CEFTA) Hungary, Czech and Slovak Re-publics, Slovenia, and Romania also only contributed about 6 7 per-cent to Poland s trade.Moreover, prospects in this area seem weaker thanpossible breakthroughs in the ex-Soviet republics.EDELMAN, MAREK (1922 ).A noted cardiologist and public figure,Edelman was the last surviving leader of the 1943 Jewish Uprising in theWarsaw ghetto, who also participated in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.Edelman supported the anti-Communist opposition in the 1970s and be-·/came prominent in the Lódz branch of Solidarity.He joined the CivicCommittee in 1988 and became a significant public figure after 1989,associated with Democratic Action Civic Movement (ROAD), theDemocratic Union (UD), and the Freedom Union (UW).In April 1997he was decorated by President Aleksander KwaÅ›niewski with the high-est Polish decoration, the Order of the White Eagle.EDUCATION.This has a long and noble tradition, stretching back to such/ /milestones as the establishment of the Jagiellonian University inKraków in 1364 and the Commission for National Education in 1773.Education is also revered because of its key contribution toward keepingPolish national and cultural identity alive during the Partition and Nazioccupation periods.After World War II the educational system not only03-129 A-J 6/24/03 2:24 PM Page 4848 " EDUCATIONeradicated illiteracy but also became open to all and provided the mainpath for social and professional advancement.The comprehensive andsecular, publicly funded and heavily subsidized, open access, nonfee-paying educational system, a major achievement of the Communist pe-riod, was challenged after 1989.The early 1990s were characterized byausterity, the pressure for renewed religious instruction by priests inschools conceded after much controversy in 1991 and the emergenceof private, religious, and communally run schools.Public funds werelacking to make organizational amalgamation and closure successful inthe state sector.Teachers were also discontented with low earnings, pro-posals for new curricula and proficiency tests, and redundancy threats.The primary and secondary educational system remained essentiallyas it had been for most of the postwar period during the 1990s.This wasconfirmed by the Law of 7 September 1991, which lay down the follow-ing, although a large number of changes were subsequently introducedduring the 1990s:Preschools provide voluntary education in largely public institutions,such as the preschool sections of primary schools, from the ages of threeand six, with what is now effectively a compulsory preschooling year atsix.This sector started charging fees for meals and additional classes in1989.It has been hard hit by austerity, especially in rural areas, with alarge number of preschools and kindergartens being closed down for fi-nancial reasons.The central feature of Polish secondary schooling was the compulsoryeight-class primary school, beginning at age seven.It finished either withsatisfactory completion or, in the few cases of pupils not wishing to con-tinue education, at age 18.About 96 percent of pupils continued their ed-ucation after primary school in a number of different three-to-five-yearstreams of post-primary education.The most important of these, the gen-eral grammar schools (the lyceum), took about 20 percent of primaryschool leavers, providing the bulk of those who pass the Matura certifi-cate, the essential requirement for university entrance.This was also themain sector where nonstate schools emerged after 1989, but even in thissector, the figure for religious and social organizations was only in the5 8 percent range by 2000.Four-year vocational grammar schoolstrained qualified manual and equivalent white-collar workers.Vocationaltechnical schools usually had five-year courses, producing the moreskilled white-collar workers with professional diplomas in their trade.Lastly, three-year elementary vocational schools provided a high level ofgeneral and vocational education.The number of such schools and, con-03-129 A-J 6/24/03 2:24 PM Page 49EDUCATION " 49sequently, the number of places available were cut back after 1989, butpractical workplace training has declined.The above-mentioned features largely continue, although a major re-form of the school system was introduced for the 1999 school year.Theprevious eight years of obligatory primary schooling was replaced bytwo universally binding cycles of six years primary and three yearslower secondary schooling.Overall in the 2000/2001 school year,Poland had a much-reduced preschool sector, including kindergartensfor 451,600 pupils (less than half the 1991 figure).On the other hand,the number of primary and secondary schools increased, even thoughthere was much restructuring between different types and the teachingstaff was slimmed down in favor of better-educated professionals.There were 16,766 primary schools, with 226,400 teachers of varyingtypes educating 3,220,600 pupils.Meanwhile 2,292 general grammarschools, with 45,600 teachers had 924,2000 pupils.This compared with8,281 vocational and technical schools, with 89,700 teachers and1,527,900 pupils, as well as 2,567 postgrammar vocational schools,with 200,100 pupils.One should also mention that Poland has a fine tra-dition of special schools, catering to the needs of the blind, deaf, men-tally retarded, and physically handicapped.It also has great strengths inthe fields of adult and part-time or evening higher education.The Polish system of higher education also developed most compre-hensively during the postwar Communist period, when it produced about1,100,000 graduates.In 2000/2001, the country had 310 state higher ed-ucation institutions, with 1,584,800 students, 261,100 of whom gradu-ated; 15 were universities and 23 were polytechnics (scientific/technicaluniversities).It also had 9 agricultural, 94 economics, 10 medical,6 physical training, and 15 theological academies, 19 teachers trainingcolleges, as well as 21 fine arts and 2 maritime training schools.Only 25private higher schools (out of an estimated 200 or so) were fully recog-nized (according to the Main Statistical Office GUS), in 2000 educating66,200 students (13,800 graduates).This expansion has now trebled theparticipation rate in higher education, compared with the Communist pe-riod, to about 37 percent
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