ZNP Professional Development Courses

The following report, prepared by Dorota Obidniak, outlined the use of AFT grants to the ZNP to assist Ukrainian refugees in Poland.

In recent months, the Polish Teachers' Union received two grants from the American Federation of Teachers.

The first grant in the amount of $25,000 was credited to the account of the Polish Teachers' Union (ZNP) on April 24, 2022. The grant was deposited into a PLN account, with the bank converting the amount at the current exchange rate. The grant, in accordance with the donor's intentions, was to subsidize the implementation of Polish as a Foreign Language courses for professionally active teachers, who would be assigned additional tasks by school principals in the form of teaching Polish to refugee children from Ukraine. These children, depending on the number of Ukrainian students in the school, are entitled to a minimum of 6 hours of Polish language lessons per week in preparatory classes, and individual students enrolled in regular classes are entitled to a minimum of 2 hours of Polish language lessons per week. Polish is not an international language. The number of those who specialize in teaching Polish as a foreign language is limited, and the number of university departments that train teachers of Polish as a foreign language is limited as well. As a consequence of limited access to professional teaching staff, the teaching of Polish was undertaken by, and often even forced on, teachers who had no experience or skills in this field.  This caused frustration for both the teachers and the students. The scale of the problem is evidenced by the fact that after the enrollment into the 70-hour preparatory course in Polish as a foreign language was announced, more than 1,200 people signed up within two days. The ZNP prepared the course for 80 people in cooperation with Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw. The university has a relevant department. It was obvious that the ZNP did not have the funds to organize the course, which was intended to be free of charge for teachers due to their dramatically low salaries (below the minimum wage).

Thanks to the financial support received from the AFT, currently:

• 92 people have completed the 70-hour course in the first enrollment (out of the first 100 people who signed up in the first enrollment in March 2022)

• 16 people have completed the 30-hour trainer course. These individuals are expected to train teachers of Polish as a foreign language for the remaining applicants who did not make it into the first 100 during the first enrollment  

  
  

After the evaluation of the first phase of the course, the following changes were formulated, resulting also from the suggestions of the participants of the first course:

• In consultation with the University, a 40-hour course was developed (some of the theoretical classes were dropped in favor of independent work, i.e. reading)

• Under the guidance of university teachers, a set of teaching materials for these classes was prepared

• Trainers will work in tandems, under the guidance of an academic lecturer with groups of up to 20 people

• Due to changes in the course syllabus and coaching staff, a notice will be sent to the 1,100 people who did not qualify for the first enrollment of the course on July 15 to submit their applications again for the August and September courses.  

So far, the expenses for the course have amounted to (per currency exchange rate on the date of payment of invoices presented by the University) about $15,000.

The second grant in the amount of $68,000 was received on July 11, 2022, and was allocated by the donor to help organize a summer vacation for about 200 Ukrainian children and those caring for them during the vacation, including recruiting teachers and educators from among the refugees.

With this grant, in July, the ZNP organized recreation for 4 groups of Ukrainian schoolchildren with chaperones. The total number of participants was 98:

• the group in Augustów at Lake Wigry, starting July 5 - 26 people

• the group in Szklarska Poręba in the Karkonosze mountains near the border with the Czech Republic and Germany, starting July 8 - 24 people

• group in Ustroń-Jaszowiec in the Beskidy mountains, starting July 10 - 48 people

The camps are two weeks long, offering lots of activities, hiking, and sightseeing trips around the area. Participants also learn the Polish language.

More groups are currently being organized for August.

The estimated cost of the recreational camps so far, including transportation to the location and the compensation for chaperones and teachers or instructors and guides (the presence of a certified mountain guide is mandatory for any group of minors) is 250,000 zlotys, which is over $55,000.

Together with our accounting team, we have established accountability rules for AFT grants. Our units that organize camps, language courses or other activities using AFT grants have been given clear instructions on how to prepare financial documents, invoices and contracts payable. After the completion of both projects, an itemized factual and accounting report of the use of funds raised by U.S. teachers to help Ukrainian refugees will be submitted to the AFT administrators.