This article is a part of Poland Unpacked. Weekly intelligence for decision-makers
The Ministry intends to launch a pilot of a public e-register as early as the upcoming school year. IT firms argue that the state should not simultaneously set market rules and compete within it. They also point out that the project is designed to solve a problem that does not exist.
Before the end of the school year (June 11), MEN published a draft amendment to the Education Law and the Act on the Educational Information System. The goal is to introduce a state-operated electronic register for schools, which would be available free of charge.
At present, no EU country relies exclusively on paper registers. In Poland, electronic registers have been in use since 2009. Around one-third of EU member states have introduced a free, state-run register. However, most EU countries continue to operate under a mixed or market-based model.
Explainer
School e-registers (e-dziennik)
School e-registers are web and app platforms, most commonly Librus and its rival Vulcan, that Polish schools use to record grades, attendance, homework, and behavioral notes in real time, giving parents and students constant, granular visibility into school life rather than relying on periodic report cards or parent-teacher conferences.
They’re near-universal in Polish primary and secondary schools today, functioning as much as a communication channel – teachers post announcements, schedule changes, and messages to parents – as a grading tool, and they’ve become a recognizable feature of Polish family life, often blamed (only half-jokingly) for turning parents into anxious real-time grade-watchers and adding a layer of surveillance to what used to be a more private student experience.
State-run e-register
As early as September 2024, Education Minister Barbara Nowacka said her ministry was reviewing the issue of fees for using electronic school registers. At the time, she was questioned on the matter by Adrian Zandberg, a member of parliament from the Razem party. He referred to a 2017 MEN regulation, which grants parents the right to free access to electronic registers in relation to their children.
Explainer
'Razem' party
Razem (Together) – an opposition left-wing party with social-democratic roots.
It is the only non-right-wing opposition force in the Sejm. It originally formed a joint parliamentary caucus with the New Left, but a split occurred in 2024.
Since then, Razem has been critical of the government, mainly over the state of the healthcare system. It is one of the most popular parties among younger voters after the right-wing Confederation.
Its leader is Adrian Zandberg. In opinion polls, it averages around 3.5 percent support.
Zandberg also called for the creation of a state-run platform that would be free of charge. The issue, however, is that access to the largest electronic register systems is currently free for parents when using a computer or a standard application. Fees apply only to additional features available within mobile apps – such as push notifications or the ability to excuse a child’s absences directly through the app.
The annual cost of such app-based services in the Vulcan system ranges from PLN 32.99 to PLN 42.49 (approximately EUR 7.50–EUR 9.70), depending on the online store. In the Librus system, prices start at PLN 37.99 (around EUR 8.70). These are the two largest e-register providers on the Polish market.
Adrian Zandberg’s concerns were shared by Barbara Nowacka. She noted that app functionality is superior. She also acknowledged that parents question whether charging for such features meets the standards of free access to education.
Draft bill: pilot launch in September
In January 2026, following the disclosure of unauthorized access to Librus data, Education Minister Barbara Nowacka announced plans to create a state-run electronic school register. Details were presented in the following months.
The public e-register is expected to be made available to all schools starting with the 2027/2028 school year. A pilot phase is scheduled for the upcoming 2026/2027 school year.
The pilot will cover selected primary schools, as well as certain arts schools providing general education. In each voivodeship, education superintendents would select two primary schools, while arts schools would be chosen by the Minister of Culture.
Choice rests with school principals
The proposed system is not intended to immediately replace existing solutions, but to serve as an alternative. The decision on which system to use would rest with school principals. The state platform would be integrated with the Educational Information System (SIO) and the mObywatel application, which would enable access to the public e-register.
Explainer
mObywatel
mObywatel (“mCitizen”) is Poland’s official government mobile app, launched in 2017 as a basic digital ID display and since expanded into the country’s default point of contact between citizens and the state.
It now holds digital versions of the national ID card (mDowód), driving license, student and senior cards, the Large Family Card, and disability ID, alongside services like e-prescriptions, tax payments, PESEL-number fraud protection, passport applications, and vehicle registration checks – enough that carrying physical documents has become largely optional for routine interactions with Polish bureaucracy.
The planned data set would be extensive. It would include a student’s PESEL number, photograph, address, place of birth, class, attendance records, all grades, lesson schedules and topics, information on special educational needs and individualized learning, as well as occupation and specialization in the case of vocational students. Some of this information – such as decisions on special educational needs and psychological assessments – constitutes sensitive personal data. The new register would also collect data on teachers (including roles and teaching hours) and parents.
The state system would therefore aggregate data that is already largely collected by private providers. Data administration would be shared between school principals and the Minister of Education. School principals would have full access to all data concerning their school. Teachers would have access to data on the students they teach. Students would have access to their own data, as would their parents. Adult students could object to parental access to their data, although such objections could later be withdrawn.
The Ministry of Education estimates that the project would affect over 20,600 schools, 2,800 local government units, seven ministries, 2,300 non-municipal education providers, 17,500 school principals, 4.94 million students, 520,000 teachers, and 10 million parents, as well as five private operators currently active in the market. For the latter, it could mean losses.
Costs of the state system: gaps in the estimates
The Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) for the draft bill estimates that introducing a state-run electronic school register could cost PLN 190.5 million (approx. EUR 44 million) by 2035.
The development of the system and its pilot phase, planned for 2026–2027, are expected to cost PLN 57.5 million (approx. EUR 13.2 million). This includes PLN 7.2 million allocated by the Educational Information Technology Centre for analysis, functionality development, pilot implementation, and system maintenance during the rollout phase. Of this amount, PLN 2 million is planned for 2026, rising to PLN 5.2 million in the following year.
A further PLN 50.3 million (approx. EUR 11.5 million) would be spent by the Ministry of Digital Affairs and the Central IT Centre on system construction, integration with the mObywatel app, testing, and implementation – of which PLN 10.6 million is allocated for 2026 and PLN 39.7 million for 2027.
However, the document does not estimate the impact on public finances over a ten-year horizon. Not only revenues but also expenditures are presented as zero. The ministry nevertheless estimates that between 2028 and 2035, costs could reach around PLN 133 million (approx. EUR 30.5 million), with more detailed figures to be presented after the pilot phase is completed.
The ministry also estimates that the system could generate savings for parents of around PLN 30–50 (approx. EUR 7–11) per year. It has not, however, assessed potential savings for local governments from commercial licensing fees.
The Council of Ministers is expected to adopt the draft in the third quarter of 2026. Consultations are currently underway.
Industry sounds the alarm: “Chaos for PLN 190 million”
The Polish Chamber of Information Technology and Telecommunications (PIIT) has commented on the Ministry of Education’s draft. In a statement signed by PIIT president Andrzej Dulka, the organization argues that the ministry’s proposal guarantees “chaos in schools” for PLN 190 million (approx. EUR 44 million) of public funds.
The president also points to an empty table in the regulatory impact assessment concerning public finance effects, which – according to PIIT – signals that the draft was prepared in haste.
PIIT further highlights critical security risks stemming from data centralization. Instead of building a new system costing over PLN 190 million, the state should focus on implementing two-factor authentication. According to the industry, fewer than 19% of teachers currently use it.
The sector also criticizes the length of the consultation period, which it considers extremely short: just 21 days from June 11, meaning the deadline falls on July 2.
The state’s dual role
Another argument raised in the PIIT statement is that the project represents a step backward in the digitalization of education, due to teachers having to enter data twice during the pilot phase. The Chamber also points to what it sees as a fundamental contradiction in the state’s role in the process.
“The dissonance lies in the fact that the state acts as both regulator and competitor at the same time. The Ministry of Education sets the legal framework governing the education market while simultaneously building its own solution within it. This undermines Polish EdTech companies that, together with schools, have digitized Polish education over the past 20 years, providing stable systems tailored to schools’ specific needs,” reads the industry statement signed by PIIT president Andrzej Dulka.
The dissonance, it argues, stems from the state simultaneously acting as regulator and competitor: MEN both legislates the education market and builds its own product within it.
Jacek Różycki, president of Vulcan, told XYZ that the industry is open to discussions with the Ministry of Education on more cost-effective solutions. His company has been operating for 38 years and specializes in providing IT systems for the education sector. Różycki added that PIIT representatives have met several times with MEN officials, but the talks have not led to a mutually satisfactory outcome. He also noted that parents and students can access certain features via a browser that are paid for in the app. The absence of push notifications, he explained, results from the limitations of web browsers themselves.
A gap in the system
The head of Vulcan expands on the industry argument that the reform risks reversing progress in school digitalization. He notes that today’s electronic registers are integrated with other school systems provided by private vendors.
“For example, payroll systems receive information on substitutions recorded earlier in the register. Another example is the ability to report a child’s absence in the register, which is then passed on to systems managing school cafeterias and settling meal costs. Removing the register from this ecosystem creates a gap. To ‘patch’ it, either all data would have to be entered manually – which would set back the digitalization of education by many years – or the government system would need to be integrated with other systems. That integration will not be cost-free, and those costs will likely fall on local governments,” says Jacek Różycki.
The industry representative argues that the project is being prepared in haste. In his view, this is evidenced by the lack of clearly defined intended outcomes of the pilot.
“If a school already uses an electronic register and a government one is introduced alongside it, the same data will have to be entered twice during the pilot. There is a significant risk of inconsistencies and human error in data entry, and then parents will blame teachers, not the system. It is unclear what is driving this urgency. We have seen similar situations before. A free textbook program was introduced and then withdrawn after a few years. Eventually, discussions resumed with publishers about providing free textbooks without building a government system,” the Vulcan CEO says.
Potential impact on the sector
The introduction of a state-run electronic register could lead to higher costs for all stakeholders involved.
“Some schools will start implementing the government register. For local governments, this will mean additional costs of system integration or extra workload. Commercial companies will likely receive additional compensation for the extra work, but they will also lose part of their revenue from premium mobile app features. Parents – or rather all taxpayers – will ultimately pay for the state-run register,” says Jacek Różycki.
He adds that it is still too early to estimate potential losses for the industry. It is not yet known what functionality the state e-register will have once it becomes universally available in September 2027.
Key Takeaways
- Currently, access to electronic school registers is free when using a computer and partially paid when using mobile applications. The largest providers of such services, Librus and Vulcan, offer paid access to additional features such as push notifications.
- The Ministry of Education’s (MEN) draft proposes the creation of a unified system that would be available free of charge to all schools, students, and parents. The planned system is to be integrated with the mObywatel app. The estimated cost of implementing the new system exceeds PLN 190 million (approx. EUR 44 milion).
- The IT industry criticizes the government for the short consultation period and for its dual role as both market regulator and competitor to private service providers. In its view, centralizing data poses risks, while replacing a system that is integrated with other school IT tools could create a functional gap. Industry representatives say they are open to discussions with the government on reducing costs for features that are currently offered as paid add-ons in existing applications.