Poland Mandates Health Education in Schools While Keeping Sexual Health Module Optional

Poland's Minister of Education Barbara Nowacka announced on Thursday, April 9, 2026, that health education will become a mandatory subject in Polish schools starting September 1, 2026, with one significant exception: a module covering sexual health, estimated at roughly one-tenth of the overall curriculum, will remain optional and require parental consent. Nowacka made the announcement during an appearance on TVN24, confirming that the mandatory subject will apply from grade 4 of primary school and continue for two years in post-primary schools. The core curriculum will cover hygiene, physical activity, mental health, and nutrition. For the sexual health component — amounting to one or two lessons per year — parents will decide whether their child participates, while adult students in post-primary schools will make that decision themselves. Nowacka stated that an expert team of doctors, specialists, and teachers will be appointed to define the precise content of both the mandatory and optional modules. She added that she would personally encourage parents to enroll their children in the sexual health component, describing such knowledge as equally important as any other aspect of health education.

Coalition friction erupts over a year of policy reversals The announcement immediately exposed tensions within Poland's ruling coalition, with the sharpest criticism coming from Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, Minister of Funds and Regional Policy and the newly elected chairwoman of the Poland 2050 party. Writing on the X portal, Pełczyńska-Nałęcz said the situation was maddening to observe, arguing that her party had proposed the exact same solution — making health education mandatory while keeping the sexual health module optional — a full year earlier, only to be rejected by the Ministry of National Education. She wrote that the Ministry's initial refusal, followed by a reversal that made the entire subject non-compulsory, had produced damaging consequences. According to ministerial data cited by Radio ZET, approximately 30 percent of students who had health education in their lesson plans actually enrolled in the subject after it became non-compulsory. „It makes your blood boil looking at what is happening in education. A year ago, as Poland 2050, we said: health education should be compulsory except for the sexual education module. What did the Ministry say to that? 'No.' Everything must be compulsory... After which Barbara Nowacka changed her mind and everything became voluntary. After a year, the majority of students opted out of health education, and the subject itself has unfortunately become a meme.” — Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz via Polsat News Pełczyńska-Nałęcz also raised a separate grievance over a proposed smartphone ban in schools, alleging that a bill her party submitted had been stalled in the Sejm's Education Committee for six months by a colleague from Minister Nowacka's own party.

Health education entered Polish schools on September 1, 2025, replacing the previously non-compulsory subject known as "education for family life." The Ministry of National Education had originally announced the new subject would be mandatory, a position it maintained publicly on multiple occasions. However, following a presidential campaign period and pressure from conservative circles, the Ministry reversed course and made the subject non-compulsory. The decision to announce the mandatory status was originally scheduled for the end of March 2026 but was repeatedly postponed before Thursday's announcement.

Deputy PM praises move but regrets sex education stays optional Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski, representing the New Left party, offered a more measured response, welcoming the mandatory status of health education while expressing clear regret about the sexual health module remaining optional. Speaking on TOK FM's morning program, Gawkowski said he had been rooting for Nowacka to make the subject mandatory and called the shift a good direction, arguing that the previous non-compulsory status had created confusion among both students and parents. „I regret that this segment of sex education will not be mandatory, it's a pity. I believe that doors for this will still open in the future, because the left will certainly be rooting for it. But today I praise Minister Nowacka for the decision. It is good that health education will be mandatory — it is better for students, it is good for parents, it is best for the state.” — Krzysztof Gawkowski via TOK FM Gawkowski pushed back against the framing that age-appropriate discussion of sexuality constitutes harm to children, recalling that such topics were covered in biology classes during his own schooling in the early 1990s. He described the current political climate around the issue as a "psychosis of fear" that had taken hold in conservative circles. He also acknowledged that withdrawing the sexual health module from the mandatory curriculum was, in his view, a mistake, though he expressed hope it would be corrected in the future.

Health education policy shifts: Subject status (before: Non-compulsory (from September 2025), after: Mandatory (from September 2026)); Sexual health module (before: Part of non-compulsory subject, after: Optional sub-module, parental consent required); Student enrollment (before: ~30% of eligible students signed up, after: All students enrolled by default)

PiS candidate for PM links health education to abuse scandal The opposition reaction was sharply hostile. Przemysław Czarnek, Law and Justice vice-president and the party's candidate for prime minister, posted on the X portal linking the health education decision to an unrelated criminal case in the Lower Silesia region. Czarnek wrote that Prime Minister Donald Tusk's Civic Coalition was telling Poles, through Nowacka, that "we are coming for your children," attaching an emoticon of a face screaming in fear. The reference to the Kłodzko case — described by RMF24 as a pedophilia scandal — drew the sharpest criticism from the opposition side and illustrated the degree to which the health education debate has become entangled with broader culture-war politics in Poland. Meanwhile, Paweł Mrozek, founder of the "Student Action" initiative and a member of the Janusz Korczak Institute for Children's Rights, welcomed the announcement with what he described as great satisfaction and a sense of work well done. He appealed to politicians across the spectrum, to the Catholic Episcopate, and to advocacy organizations to refrain from reigniting public controversy over the subject. „Enough of this national storm around health education. Do not ignite it anew. Children are not pawns in your political game; school cannot be a field of ideological battle. Give schools, teachers, and students peace, space, and time for real work and learning.” — Paweł Mrozek via wiadomosci.radiozet.pl

30 (percent) — share of eligible students who enrolled when subject was optional