EN
The article is an attempt to meet the high demands on the authors of critical publications as expressed by B. Śliwerski: “several analyses independent from the authorities have appeared in Polish comparative literature. At the heart of these analyses was a concern of investigating the truth about solutions widely recognized as obvious and indisputable in Polish education” . The authors have developed and tested their own methods of measuring language skills adapted to a various level of competence of upper secondary school students so that this article can be included in such a group of independent publications and the results obtained may reflect the actual state of education. The analysis of the results of measurements conducted in the first classes of the so-called “Laboratory District” proves a deep crisis in Polish education. The level of language competences of over half of the junior high school graduates is so low that they are not able to write a short argumentative writing piece. In this situation, uniform general lower secondary education can be considered as a wrong solution, and teachers of upper secondary schools, especially technical, are facing a difficult task of catching up with many years of general education.