Poland education: grade levels

A comparison of the Polish, Canadian, American, British, and German grade level systems

The education system in Poland is an interesting one. And it continues to evolve.

Below, we outline the different grade levels, and years of compulsory education, in Poland. We also compare Poland’s grade level system to that of five other countries—Canada, the United States, Britain, France, and Germany, and one international curriculum—the International Baccalaureate (IB).

On this page:

• Poland
• Britain
• Germany

For each country, we highlight the years of compulsory education in blue. This doesn’t apply to the IB program, though, since it’s not affiliated with any one country.

Poland

Poland is unique in that it has a shorter period in which education is compulsory. Compulsory education in Poland starts at the age of 6, at the so-called zero year (zerowka) or Grade zero (in either preschool or elementary school). It ends at the age of 14—the equivalent to Grade 8 in many countries.

This means Poland only has 9 years of compulsory education. This is shorter than in Canada and the US, where children are required to attend school for at least 10 years. In both Canada and the US, school attendance is required from grade 1 until at least Grade 10 (in some provinces and states, students are required to complete high school).

Britain

In Britain (and all of the UK) as well, compulsory education is 12 years. Children must attend school from the reception year (right before Year 1) until Year 1. In France and Germany, meanwhile, compulsory education runs 9 years, from Grade 1 to 9 on the North American system.

Germany

In Germany, students, at age 12, can attend Realschule, Mittelschule, Gymnasium, or Gesamtschule, instead of Hauptschule. Each of these types of secondary school has a different focus and grade range.

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