Current and Future Challenges

·         The number of hours and ECTS credits that go to make up a music teacher training course in Poland is prescribed for the whole country, as are the compulsory subjects to be studied. For a Bachelor's degree, it is 600 hours and 80 ECTS credits, for a Master's 240 hours and 32 ECTS credits. It is up to the institutes of higher education themselves to decide what subjects to devote the remaining hours to, and this will depend on the specialist fields covered by their teaching staff. For a Bachelor's these amount to 1,200 hours and 100 ECTS credits, for a Master's 560 hours and 88 ECTS credits.

·         The course of study also includes 360 hours that should be allocated to subjects relating to educational theory and psychology. The problem here is that the institutions are not obliged to offer these subjects. It is consequently up to the students to choose how and where they acquire this knowledge.

There is a huge discrepancy between the large number of graduates and the relatively small amount of music lessons in the curriculum of schools providing all-round education.