Take this with you

  • The GUS report came out on 2 November 2026; pupil counts show the position on 30 September 2025.
  • Preschools had 90,200 fewer children, while primary schools had 1.4% more pupils.
  • Liceum pupil numbers rose 3.3%; first-stage vocational schools fell 10.2%.
  • The 2025 matura pass rate after all sessions was 86.1%.
  • National data does not replace the thresholds and dates of a specific school.

What GUS published

On 2 November 2026, Główny Urząd Statystyczny (GUS, Statistics Poland) released its annual report "Oświata i wychowanie w roku szkolnym 2025/2026" (Education in the 2025/2026 school year). It counts 5.3 million children, young people and adults in preschools and schools, or 14.3% of Poland's population.

The dates matter. Pupil and school counts show the position on 30 September 2025, and exam results refer to 2025. So this is not a picture of the current 2026/27 school year or of this year's matura (the secondary school leaving exam).

Preschools and primary schools move in opposite directions

Preschool education covered 1.4 million children, 90,200 (6.2%) fewer than a year earlier. There were 21,900 preschool settings, down 1.8%. In all, 97.1% of children aged 3–6 attended. The report's summary gives no reason for the fall.

Primary schools for children and young people had 3.3 million pupils, up 1.4%, although the number of schools fell by 0.5% to 13,900. GUS links the rise partly to compulsory schooling for refugee children from Ukraine and to demographic shifts after the so-called double cohort (two age groups that started school together) left the system.

After primary school: more in general secondary, fewer in vocational

These are the main secondary school types, compared with the year before:

  • liceum (general secondary school): 3,184 schools, 892,100 pupils (up 3.3%); liceum for adults alone grew by 10.7%
  • technikum (technical secondary school): 1,849 schools, 684,900 pupils (down 0.4%)
  • szkoła branżowa I stopnia (first-stage vocational school): 1,700 schools, 190,800 pupils (down 10.2%)
  • szkoła policealna (post-secondary school): 1,212 schools, 243,500 pupils (down 0.9%)

Languages, exams and teachers

English was studied by 95.6% of primary and secondary pupils, German by 34.2%. In the egzamin ósmoklasisty (the exam at the end of primary school, grade 8) in May 2025, average scores were 64% in Polish, 50% in maths and 70% in English.

In the May 2025 matura, 80.0% of school leavers passed, rising to 86.1% after all sessions: 90.4% from liceum and 79.5% from technikum. Across all sessions, 438,200 people sat both parts of the vocational exam, and 80.1% of them received a certificate or diploma.

Preschools and schools employed 508,300 full-time-equivalent teachers, 56.5% of them at the top career grade (nauczyciel dyplomowany). Public spending on education in 2025 was PLN 169.1 billion, or 4.3% of GDP.

What this means for parents and adult learners

These are national figures, so they will not tell you how hard it is to get into a particular school. For admissions decisions you need past thresholds and the dates published by the kuratorium (regional education authority) and the school itself.

Average exam scores are useful as background when a school presents its own results: check which year the comparison uses. Adults should note that 59.1% of liceum schools for adults are non-public, so it is worth asking about fees and the school's official status before enrolling.

Sources & further reading

Prepared with AI assistance using the sources below. Editorial standards ↗