Poland to Expand Teacher Qualifications from September 2026

Starting September 1, 2026, new regulations will broaden the qualifications required for teachers in Poland, aiming to ease the process for school principals to staff new and modified subjects. The changes, spearheaded by Minister of Education Barbara Nowacka, are designed to streamline the assignment of teachers to subjects like health education and nature studies.

The most significant shift involves health education, which becomes a mandatory subject from the 2026/2027 school year, excluding the sexual health module. Teachers of safety education will now be qualified to teach this subject, with future possibilities for defense training instructors. Separate qualifications are established for the optional sexual health education module, open to current health education teachers, biologists, psychologists, and individuals with medical or public health backgrounds. Those previously qualified to teach family life education will retain their eligibility.

Beyond health education, the new rules also facilitate the staffing of other subjects. Teachers of biology, geography, physics, and chemistry can now teach nature studies in primary schools. History and social studies teachers will be qualified for civic education, and safety education teachers for defense training. Additionally, technology teachers will gain qualifications for practical-technical classes.

The regulations also extend to Polish language teaching in schools abroad, allowing individuals with master's degrees in glottodidactics and pedagogical preparation to qualify. Updated lists of exams for foreign language teaching qualifications, including those from the British Council and Pearson Central Europe, are also included. These updates collectively aim to provide schools with greater flexibility in assigning teachers to subjects without requiring them to obtain entirely new, separate qualifications, a crucial adjustment as schools prepare for curriculum changes.