Sosnowiec mayor: Demographic decline is already entering primary schools

Sosnowiec is beginning to feel the demographic decline in its primary schools. About 1,200 seven-year-olds are due to start first grade, compared with slightly more than 1,300 last year.

Mayor Arkadiusz Chęciński says the trend has already been strongly visible in preschools. In primary schools, he says, it no longer merely approaches the door. It is slowly entering.

The city says it will try to avoid closing any school or preschool. Officials may phase out classes, and possibly parts of buildings, as fewer children move through the education system. Closing an educational facility would remain a last resort. Chęciński noted that exceptions could arise where two or three preschools stand close together, but said no such action is currently being taken.

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We are doing what we can to avoid closing any school or preschool.

The municipality’s additional educational program will focus on regional studies. Lessons will cover local history, traditions, nature and culture, with the stated aim of building regional identity while promoting tolerance and openness toward other cultures.

Sosnowiec is also changing childcare arrangements. Seven preschools will offer extended hours until 6 p.m. or 6:30 p.m., replacing last year’s arrangement in which two facilities stayed open until 8 p.m. The change followed parents’ requests because few children remained until 8 p.m. The city is also considering opening nursery sections on one Saturday each month if at least five children are registered for that date. From September, it plans to pay 10,000 zlotys for each newborn third or subsequent child in a family, or in cases where triplets are born.

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It no longer merely knocks on the doors of schools, but is slowly entering.