Modern equipment will be granted to nearly 15 000 Polish primary schools!
We have completed the recruitment of the primary schools for the Future Labs program. Over 99% of all primary local government schools participated in the first edition of the program. Their students are already enjoying new facilities, including 3D printers, educational robots and audio-video equipment. In September 2022, nearly 2,000 non-government primary schools joined the group of beneficiaries. The equipment will be delivered to them by September 2023.
About program
Future Labs program is the largest educational program realised by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in cooperation with the GovTech Centre. Our goal is to equip all Polish primary schools with technical equipment that will enable over 3 million students to develop practical skills in various fields.
The list of equipment that schools can purchase thanks to received endowment contains several hundred items, including:
- standard equipment (3D printer, digital camera, photo-camera, microcontroller unit)
- tools (laminator, weather station, wood burning kit)
- robotics (VR goggles, educational robot, microscope, telescope)
- household products (sewing machine, computer embroidery machine, food processor)
- audio-video equipment (greenscreen, sound system, audio-video mixer)
We spent over PLN 1 billion on equipping schools
The maximum amount of endowment depends on the number of students in a given school resulting from the data of the education management information system. If there are less than 235 students, the school receives an endowment of:
- PLN 30,000 – up to 100 students,
- PLN 60,000 – up to 200 students,
- PLN 70,000 – up to 234 students.
If there are at least 235 students, the amount of endowment is the product of the number of students in a given school and the amount of PLN 300.
We spent over PLN 1 billion on equipping schools.
Schools in the Program
In the second half of 2021, we launched the first edition of the Future Labs program. Nearly 12,000 primary local government schools took part in the recruitment. Their students are already effectively using the equipment purchased thanks to the program:
- Using the equipment, teachers from the school in Dąbrowa Tarnowska aroused a passion for robotics among students. During the classes, the youngest had the opportunity to construct their own modern machines.
- These students from Warsaw went on a journey to hot Dubai thanks to VR goggles. Such a geography lesson must have been remembered for a long time!
- The holidays did not mean ‘goodbye school’ for everyone. Young people from a school in Poznań proved that science can be interesting, and the equipment purchased thanks to Future Labs can also be used after lessons - e.g., during summer day camps.
You may find more examples on our Facebook page.
In 2022, we extended the program and allowed primary non-government schools and Polish primary schools to take part in the program. As a result of the recruitment process, which ended on September 19, nearly 2,000 schools joined us. Modern equipment will be delivered to them by September 2023.
In total, over 3 million students, learning in almost 15,000 schools, will benefit from the initiative.
Future Labs program has started a tour of Polish schools
Since September 2022, local government primary schools from every voivodeship are being visited by teams of Future Labs to support the process of using the purchased equipment. In the coming months, 16 buses of experts and tools will travel across all counties in Poland to appear in every school. Future Labs program is implemented with the support of The Educational Research Institute, the Centre for Education Development and the GovTech Center.