Barbara Nowacka talks about removing two authors from her reading list. There’s a storm on the Internet: You can’t get any stupider

Barbara Nowacka announced on TVN24 that the new reading list is ready and will be published by the end of June. She emphasized that for her part the topic was now closed and changes to the core curriculum would no longer be corrected. At the same time, she emphasized that all decisions were made after “long discussions with Polish teachers, practitioners, public hearings and meetings.”

Barbara Nowacka announces changes in school reading materials

The changes will be significant because the ministry has promised to reduce the core curriculum by as much as 20 percent. Significant corrections to the reading list include “Chłopów” and “The Deluge”, which from the new school year will be read by students only in fragments. However, this is not what outraged those commenting on the changes the most.

Although the full reading list has not been published yet. Barbara Nowacka’s statements have already received wide attention and were met with unfavorable comments. – The reading list was gigantic and unfortunately unread. There were some indoctrination ideas, for example, in recent years, the poetry of a certain Rymkiewicz was introduced. Experts highly recommended removal. I signed a document in which Mr. Rymkiewicz and Dukaj do not appear – declared the Minister of Education.

Outrage after Barbara Nowacka’s words

The lack of obligation to read Jarosław Rymkiewicz and Jacek Dukaj’s books from cover to cover in the core curriculum caused a storm on the Internet. The journalist of “Rzeczypospolita” Michał Szułdrzyński expressed his outrage on platform “She complained that there were no books from the 21st century on the list. And she crossed out the winner of the European Literary Award in 2008. It’s impossible to be stupid,” he pointed out to Nowacka.

Zdzisław Krasnodębski – sociologist, Member of the European Parliament of the 9th term, publicist who formerly cooperated with “Gazeta Polska” and “W Sieci” also spoke on the matter. “There will be only fragments, devoid of disgusting nationalistic and binary content. Rejoice, compatriots, they will educate your children,” he wrote.

Radosław Fogiel from Law and Justice does not understand where the idea for such changes comes from. “Apart from talking about “a certain Rymkiewicz”, how could anyone think of removing Jacek Dukaj, undoubtedly one of the most outstanding contemporary writers, from the reading list?” – writes the politician.

Marzena Paczuska, journalist and member of the TVP management board in 2019-2020, also expressed her outrage at Nowacka’s words. “When the Minister of Education calls Rymkiewicz ‘someone’ and has no idea what awards Jacek Dukaj received (Kościelski, the European Literary Award, and even a medal from Zdrojewski) – I am calm. During the communist era, there was also a catalog of unwanted reading” – writes Paczuska on the X portal.