Poland

Complaints are heard over and over again that the Polish professors load the greatest part of the teaching responsibility on their assistants, in order to devote themselves more freely to research. Only a few students go to the lectures, which are held by the professors, for they are not obligated to go. The bulk of instruction is concentrated in the courses demanding active participation, and these are held by the assistants. But since these assistants are only a few years older than the students and do not yet have sufficient knowledge at their disposal, they soon lose their authority over the students. Classes are whiled away with a newspaper or a pack of cards. Besides this, the assistants also function as mentors. However, the student only visits his mentor three times a year, when he takes an examination, but otherwise he scarcely has contact with him, and the assistant doesn't feel a need for seeing his protege, either. The methods of selecting the assistants are the object of much criticism. Usually the students with the best marks become assistants later. But apart from their subject, the assistants have no pedagogical knowledge. For this reason, some feel that the assistants should take a practical education course before beginning their work. Especially unfavourable effects have resulted from classes held by assistants in the first two study years. After having begun his studies under the dubious factual and moral direction of an assistant, the student can scarcely be expected to show the professional ethics required of him in his later semesters, (itd, Warsaw).

95 per cent, of the students of Oppeln Pedagogical Institute are so needy that they should be receiving a scholarship. But as funds are insufficient and 20 to 25 per cent, would go empty-handed, the administration of the Institute has decided to lessen the scholarship amounts, in order to help those who receive no scholarship. The students whose scholarships were thus reduced generally agreed to this measure. But since this could only be an emergency solution, the Oppeln District Authorities urged the industries located in the district to establish an independent scholarship fund. But it soon became clear that this fund is at odds with the law, because industrial concerns may only award scholarships to students who pledge to work for the concern for a time, upon completing their studies; this can, however, not be demanded of a future teacher. Therefore, many concerns cut off their share of the fund, so that finally only a sum of 192.800 zl. could be raised. When the Institute requested the provincial government for assistance, it was told that it could only receive support at the expense of the higher and intermediate specialist schools. This shows how disagreeable the system of industrial scholarships in Poland is .Even the awarding of scholarships to prospective technologists runs into difficulty. The institutes of technology do indeed receive the most support from industry, but the industrial concerns are often dissatisfied with the results, for if the students d9 not finish on time, the concern must wait an extra long time for its engineer. Besides, the concerns usually want engineers with special skills and thus preferably support older students who seem most likely to be of real use later on in the concern. It was proposed to establish a bureau which would handle each scholarship as it comes in and guarantee the concern a specialist for it, in the hope that this would improve co-ordination. (itd, Warsaw).