The number of hours of German taught in Polish schools to children from the German minority has been cut by two-thirds following a decision by Poland’s education minister Przemysław Czarnek. The money saved as a result of this measure is to be allocated to teaching the Polish language to the Polish diaspora living in Germany. 

“The Federal Republic of Germany, having two million Poles, does not recognise them as a national minority and does not transfer funds for teaching Polish as a mother tongue, despite the obligation resulting from the Treaty [of Good Neighbourship – BP] concluded 30 years ago […] We want Germans to […] fulfil their international obligations,” Czarnek explained.

The decision has faced criticism from representatives of the German minority, who collected thousands of signatures on a petition against it. Some other members of the opposition also condemned this initiative as “discriminatory”.

The new measure has been supported in parliament by MPs from the ruling centre-right Law and Justice (PiS) party and the right-wing Confederation (Konfederacja). MP’s from both these parties draw attention to the fact that “it is, actually, Poles in Germany who are facing discrimination.”

The funding for German teaching will be diminished by nearly 40 million zlotys (£7.5 million) from the annual state budget and will instead allocate additional funds to teaching Polish in Germany, where over 2 million Poles live.

It is important to underline that up until this day, Germany does not legally recognise the existence of a Polish national minority in Germany. This leads to several forms of discrimination against Poles in this country, which is all the more visible given the rights of the German minority in Poland.

Cover photo: Unsplash

Author: Sébastien Meuwissen