There will be no school trips. All because of one decision in the Ministry of National Education

• Analyses are underway regarding teachers’ remuneration for overtime, including for participation in school trips.
• Due to this, the Ministry of National Education did not announce a call for applications for the "Travel with Class" programme this year.
• The provisions of the new edition of "Traveling with Class" must be synchronised with the findings of the working group on teachers' salaries.

At the end of May last year, the Minister of Education, Barbara Nowacka, announced a program to finance school trips called "Travel with Class", addressed to primary and secondary schools .

She stated that the aim of the programme was to make the educational process for children and young people more attractive by enabling them to learn about the traditions, culture and achievements of Polish science.

The call for applications for the program took place in June and July 2024, and students went on trips at the beginning of the 2024/2025 school year.

The Ministry of National Education has clarified whether a call for applications for the "Travel with Class" program will also be held this year.

The Minister of Education establishes the programs and projects. In the event of decisions regarding the renewal of the Travel with Class program, we will inform you about it

- the Ministry of Education informed.

In response, it was noted that the Ministry of National Education is conducting analyses regarding teachers’ remuneration for overtime, including for participation in school trips.

Any provisions of the new edition of the Travel with Class programme must be synchronised with the findings of the working group on teachers' salaries

- explained in the response.

The working group on remuneration operates within the team on professional pragmatics of teachers, which includes members of the MEN management, as well as representatives of:

• Minister of Labour,
• Minister of Finance,
• Institute of Educational Research,
• teachers' unions
• representatives of local governments.

The next meeting of the group is scheduled for Wednesday (18 June).

The topic to be discussed at the group meeting is related to the Supreme Court resolution on teachers' overtime. According to Article 42 of the Teachers' Charter , working time cannot exceed 40 hours per week for a teacher employed full-time.

Working time includes:

• conducting classes directly with students or pupils or on their behalf,
• other activities, such as care and education,
• activities related to preparation for classes, self-education and professional development.

Overtime occurs when a teacher allocates more time to these tasks than indicated in the regulations.

In a resolution adopted at the end of February, the Supreme Court ruled that work performed by a teacher in excess of the working time norms set out in the Teachers’ Charter constitutes overtime work within the meaning of the Labour Code, and that paying for exceeding the working time norms, i.e. overtime, is a principle in the Polish legal system.

Teachers' unions have been pointing out for years the failure to respect the employment rights of teachers who go on school trips as chaperones . They want legal regulations to regulate, among other things, business trips, overtime, and daily and weekly working hours.

As part of the "Travel with Class" programme implemented last year , trips lasting from 2 to 5 days were subject to 100% funding .

In order for the trip to be financed from the Minister's funds, as part of a two-day trip , students had to visit at least two cultural institutions , e.g. museums, theatres, philharmonics, places of remembrance, science centres; in the case of a three-day trip - three institutions, etc.

Funding for trips depends on their length . And so:

• a two-day trip could be financed up to PLN 20,000,
• three-day trip - up to PLN 30,000,
• four-day trip - up to PLN 40,000,
• five-day trip - up to PLN 50,000.

The trip had to include at least 10 students , and the total cost of accommodation and meals for each participant could not exceed PLN 250 per day.

The grant could only finance expenses included in the calculation of the trip costs, including:

• travel costs,
• admission tickets,
• accommodation,
• food,
• insurance for trip participants.

The recruitment for the program began on June 16 last year. In the first 12 minutes, over 2.2 thousand applications were registered, exhausting the pool of PLN 60 million allocated for 2024. Due to such great interest, the Minister of Education allocated an additional PLN 20 million for the implementation of the program. In July last year, a second recruitment was carried out.

As reported by the Ministry of National Education, in 2024 the program financed a total of 3,036 trips for 106,981 students. Students went on the trips at the beginning of the 2024/2025 school year (from September to December).

The "Travel with Class" program replaced the previously implemented "Discover Poland" program announced by the Minister of Education and Science Przemysław Czarnek. As part of the four editions of this program, in 2021-2022, 918,060 students went on 22,029 trips co-financed by the Ministry of Education and Science.

In this program, primary and secondary schools could receive funding of up to 80 percent of the planned trip costs.

The trips had to be carried out within four educational areas: in the footsteps of the Polish Underground State; in the footsteps of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński; culture and national heritage; and the greatest achievements of Polish science.

As part of the trip, students had to visit selected educational points (museums, open-air museums, monuments, natural objects and places related to history and culture) included on a special list.