Polish PM: Teach my language in British schools
POLISH should be taught in Britain’s schools, the country’s Prime Minister declared yesterday.
Beata Szydlo used a televised Downing Street press conference to make the surprise request of her counterpart Theresa May.
She spoke of ‘the option of teaching Polish as a language in British schools’ after the topic was also raised in a meeting of senior politicians from the two countries.
The suggestion comes as Downing Street is keen to make an ally of the Polish leader in advance of Brexit talks formally opening.
Neither Number Ten nor Mrs May gave any response to the request, which did not contain any detail and which follows a huge influx of children into UK schools from Poland.
Last week, Poland’s Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski made a similar request of the government in Ireland, where large numbers of Polish children also live.
Almost 700,000 pupils in Britain – one in 15 nationally – have a parent who is a citizen of another European country. The number has more than doubled since 2007.
Of those school-aged children who arrive in Britain from EU countries, the highest number come from Poland, followed by Germany and Lithuania.
The two Prime Ministers said they had enjoyed ‘excellent’ talks at the special summit in London. Mrs May added that she was seeking an ‘early’ deal to allow Polish citizens and those from the remainder of the EU to stay in this country following Brexit.
But she said that, until the rest of the EU had agreed to protect the rights of Britons living abroad, the deal could not be signed off.
Mrs May declared: ‘ We are two leaders determined to make the most of the relationship between our countries.
‘I firmly believe that if we all approach Brexit in the same constructive and positive manner, then we can secure the right outcome for the United Kingdom and for our European neighbours too.’
She confirmed plans to send 150 British troops to Poland to help ‘deter Russian aggression’ in Europe. They will be deployed in April close to the Polish border with the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.
Mrs Szydlo stressed that there had been no negotiations over Brexit during the Downing Street talks.
These would be a matter for the UK and the EU, and would be initiated only when Article 50 was tabled, she said.
But the Polish leader said that Warsaw would insist on ‘reciprocity’ in the rights and privileges accorded to UK citizens in Europe and EU citizens in Britain.
Mrs Szydlo added that she hoped Brexit would result in new relations between Britain and its former EU partners based on ‘mutual trust’.
She also thanked the UK for its response to ‘very sad’ alleged hate crimes against Poles after the Brexit vote, including the killing of Arkadiusz Jozwik in Harlow, Essex.
The Polish PM said: ‘I would also like to thank you for the support given by the British Government to those members of the Polish community who have suffered after the very sad incident in hate crimes in the United Kingdom.
‘You reacted immediately and we continue working together in order to make sure that the Polish community is safe.’