UNIVERSITIES FOR CHILDREN - AN IMPORTANT LINK IN NATIONAL EDUCATION STRATEGY. THE CASE OF POLAND

Children's universities or ‘universities for children’ constitute an important link in national education strategy in Poland. This specific innovation occurred in west European countries several years ago but proliferated very quickly to Poland. The aim of the concept is to offer children between 7 and 10 years of age an opportunity to develop interest in science and research. Apart the basic intention to encourage children at the early stage to seek knowledge there is also another goal: to help overcoming stereotype notions among adults, that children should not be rushed with to much ‘school time’.
In Poland, there are three cities with their universities involved in the project so far – Cracow, Warsaw and Wroclaw. Each of the institutions, with altogether 3 thousand enrolled young students is active in a web portal, which make the whole idea more effective, popular and accessible. The Polish network of the universities for children - similar to the European partners – organizes regular science events, symposia and field studies. All this constitutes a significant part of the curriculum, which is based on lectures. All events are performed at weekends.
The concept of the universities for children is without any doubt a good idea offering the society and the community a platform for development and continuous progress. Linking the partners – the universities – in a broader international cooperation gives the opportunity to create a much more effective system of primary education.
The children’s universities in Poland form a good and proven example of cooperation at the national level but there are also plans to share experiences with similar partners abroad. This could provide in addition an excellent opportunity to establish cross cultural communication in which young people and children are involved.
A detailed description of the project – the children’s universities in Poland and its possibilities to become a partner in the European network, follows in full text of the article.