Poland’s Education System Faces Demographic Change

Pre-primary education: fewer facilities and fewer children

In the 2025/26 school year, Poland had 21,900 pre-primary education facilities, 1.8% fewer than a year earlier. They were attended by 1,362,100 children, down 6.2% from the 2024/25 school year. Among children in pre-primary education, 82.5% attended kindergartens and 16.1% attended pre-primary classes within primary schools.

The net enrolment rate for pre-primary education was 114.4% in urban areas and 75.5% in rural areas. Greater availability of facilities in cities, together with parents’ commuting patterns, results in children from rural municipalities attending urban kindergartens. Of all children in pre-primary education, 65.6% attended facilities located in cities.

Primary schools: pupil numbers rise despite fewer facilities

In the 2025/26 school year, a total of 3.3 million pupils attended 13,900 primary schools for children and young people—46,300 more than a year earlier. The increase resulted from two factors: the introduction of compulsory schooling for child refugees from Ukraine from 1 September 2024 and demographic shifts following the departure from schools of the so-called double cohort.

Urban areas had 6,100 primary schools (2.1 million pupils, 64.4%), while rural areas had 7,900 schools (1.2 million pupils, 35.6%). The average class size in mainstream primary schools was 18 pupils, with rural classes averaging 15 pupils and urban classes 20. Primary schools run by public-sector entities accounted for 88.0% of all facilities, with local-government schools forming the largest group (83.4%).

Upper-secondary schools: general secondary schools and technical schools dominate

In the 2025/26 school year, Poland had 7,100 upper-secondary schools for young people, attended by 1,703,700 pupils—0.2% more than a year earlier. Pupils in general secondary schools (45.7%) and technical schools (40.2%) made up the largest shares of upper-secondary enrolment.

Some 778,200 pupils attended 2,500 general secondary schools, of whom 61.0% were female. Technical schools—1,800 in total—were attended by 684,900 pupils, with males accounting for the majority (62.3%). First-stage sectoral vocational schools enrolled 190,800 pupils across 1,700 schools (66.4% male), while second-stage sectoral vocational schools enrolled 22,500 pupils across 300 schools (69.2% male). The largest increase in the number of facilities was recorded among second-stage sectoral vocational schools, up 27.0% year on year.

Post-secondary schools and schools for adults

In the 2025/26 school year, Poland had 1,200 post-secondary schools with 243,500 pupils—2,300 fewer than a year earlier. Women accounted for 71.3% of their pupils. Most post-secondary facilities were run by private-sector entities (79.1%).

The pattern was the reverse in schools for adults: the number of facilities fell by 4.8% to 700, while the number of pupils rose by 10.5% to 114,700. General secondary schools dominated the adult-education segment, enrolling 113,900 people, or 99.4% of all pupils in schools for adults.

Enrolment rates

In the 2025/26 school year, the gross enrolment rate for pre-primary education (ages 3–6) was 99.5%, while the net rate was 97.1%. For primary schools (ages 7–14), the gross rate reached 102.5% and the net rate 101.2%. Among upper-secondary schools, general secondary schools recorded the highest net enrolment rate (46.7%), with a clear female predominance (57.9%, compared with 36.1% among males).

Teachers: full-time equivalent posts down by 0.5%

In the 2025/26 school year, educational institutions in Poland employed 508,300 teachers in full-time equivalent terms, 0.5% fewer than a year earlier. Primary-school teachers formed the largest group, accounting for 51.9% of all FTE posts. Women predominated, representing 82.6% of all teaching FTEs, with the highest shares in pre-primary education facilities (99.0%) and primary schools (83.7%).

Methodology

The data come from the Educational Information System and are preliminary. They refer to the situation as at 30 September and cover the 2024/25–2025/26 school years. Graduate data refer to the 2024/25 school year; data for 2025/26 were not yet available at the time of publication and are marked with “•” in the source tables published by Statistics Poland. The gross enrolment rate is the ratio of the number of people enrolled at a given education level, regardless of age, to the population in the age group corresponding to that level. The net enrolment rate includes only learners in the age group corresponding to a given education level.

Source: Statistics Poland, “Education in the 2025/2026 School Year (Preliminary Results)”, Statistics Poland and the Statistical Office in Gdańsk, 1 July 2026. Author’s own calculations based on Statistics Poland data.