ABSTRACT
Secularity is at regarded in Poland as one of the fundamental principles of the education and upbringing system. It is a widely held opinion that secular ethics combined with scientific knowledge of nature, society, and cultural benefits are sufficient to form man of wide intellectual horizons, deep social sensibility, and capacity for creative work. The principle of the secularity of upbringing in Poland is wholly respected in all state elementary schools, nursery schools, secondary schools, and universities. The elementary schools, since they are compulsory, are exclusively state-owned and are bound to observe the principles of the state educational policy. Poland is a country not uniform in her national and religious composition. Besides Poles, who at constitute 90 per cent of the total population, the country is inhabited by numerous national minorities, viz. Ukrainians, Byelorussians, Jews, Slovaks, Russians, Germans, Lithuanians, gypsies, and the representatives of many other ethnographic groups.
