# A threat to the Polish school

- URL: https://syn.by/en/history/archives/a-threat-to-the-polish-school/
- Published: 1924-05-22T18:25:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-22T19:50:26+00:00
- Section: Archives
- Language: en
- BE edition: https://syn.by/historya/arkhivy/pahroza-polskaj-shkolie.md
- RU edition: https://syn.by/ru/istoriya/arhivy/ugroza-polskoy-shkolye.md

> Because the government has shifted the costs of schools onto the gminas, and the peasants do not want to pay for a Polish school, the Polish press itself admits that its existence is under threat. The paper advises the peasants to pool their money for a school of their own, a Belarusian one.

![](https://syn.by/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/illustration-752-1024x585.webp)

The Polish newspapers of Vilnia, of every persuasion, are printing interesting reports about the threat to the existence of Polish elementary schools in our villages.

The point is that these schools were imposed on us by force, against the will of the Belarusian population, which had sought in vain a school in its own native language. So long as the Polish government maintained them, all was well, and we know of cases where there were Polish schools attended by five or three pupils, or where nobody studied at all. For this reason, in many places Belarusian children began to be compelled by force to attend the Polish school, and disobedient parents were fined very heavily. But now even this will not help! For in connection with the reform of Polish finances the government has shifted the costs of maintaining schools onto the local self-governments. Yet the self-governments are overburdened with taxes as it is, and the village gminas, in drawing up their budgets for the second half of this year, cannot find sources to cover the expenses for schools. And the people, as the Polish newspapers affirm, have no desire whatever to contribute voluntarily to a Polish school.

By way of voluntary donations, write the "Słowo" and the "Dzien. Wil.", the schools could survive only in those few localities where the teacher has won special recognition and respect among the parents of his pupils.

It is quite true that there are very few such localities, and perhaps none at all. And by this statement the Polish newspapers have merely confirmed a fact known to all Belarusians: that our people do not want the Polish school and demand their own, a Belarusian one.

But the Belarusian peasantry should draw its own conclusion from this. If a school can exist among us only on voluntary contributions, then let the peasants make the corresponding collections for the kind of school they need, that is, a Belarusian one. And in such cases there is no longer any need to ask for the school to be a government, "state" school: it is enough to ask for permission for a private Belarusian school, or to turn to the Belarusian Central School Council so that it may open a school in its own name, but at the expense of the peasants, the parents of the pupils.

In this way there is no threat to the Belarusian school: the threat exists only to the school that the people dislike, that is unwanted and compulsory, in a foreign language.