Poland will take part in the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) for the third time. The ICCS 2027 study will be conducted by IBE PIB, commissioned by the Ministry of National Education.
ICCS is the largest international study on civic education, which aims to answer the question of how well young people are prepared to fulfil their role as citizens in a democratic society. ICCS examines knowledge and understanding of civic education issues, as well as students’ attitudes and civic engagement. The study involves students in their eighth year of schooling – in Poland, these are students in the 8th grade of primary school.
ICCS in Poland
The study is organised by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). Three editions of the study have been conducted so far. Poland participated in two of them – in 2009 and 2022. In 2022, Polish students achieved one of the highest scores in terms of knowledge and understanding of civic issues among 20 countries. At the same time, the study showed that Polish eighth-graders have a very low level of trust in other people and institutions, and that they are particularly critical of the functioning of the political system compared to their peers in other countries.
ICCS 2027
Students and schools from nearly 30 countries around the world will take part in the latest edition of the ICCS 2027 study. For the first time, students in Poland will participate in the study’s digital version, taken on computers, which allows more interactive tasks to be used. In this edition, particular emphasis is placed on issues pertaining to civic activity on the internet and the critical evaluation of information on social and political topics present in the digital world.
Pilot
A pilot study will be conducted in the spring of 2026 by nearly 30 countries to prepare for the main study in 2027. Poland’s students from randomly selected schools in the Mazovia, Łódź and Lubuskie Voivodeships will take part in the pilot. The pupils will complete tasks relating to civic education and complete two questionnaires. Questionnaires on schools’ activities in the field of civic education will also be completed by school directors and eighth-grade teachers.
We encourage you to read the report from the previous edition of the study.