Topic: What does the local government do?

Author: Anna Rabiega

Addressee:

8th‑grade primary school student.

Core curriculum:

VI. Local community.

The student:

1) lists the tasks of commune local governments; presents main sources of income and expenditures in the budget of communes.

VII. Regional community.

The student:

2) lists the tasks of poviat and voivodeship local governments.

The general aim of education:

The student explains the basic principles of social life, including the functioning of local and regional communities.

Learning outcomes:

The student:

• presents the competences of local government bodies.

• explains what the subsidiarity principle is.

• analyses the relations between local government bodies and government administration bodies.

Key competences:

• communicating in a foreign language,

• digital competence,

• learning to learn,

• social and civic competences.

Teaching methods:

• discussion,

• brainstorming,

• Philips 66 method,

• teaching conversation using interactive scheme, interactive exercises.

Forms of work:

• self‑learning,

• work in pairs,

• group work,

• whole‑class activity.

Material & equipment needed:

• computers with loudspeakers/headphones and internet access,

• multimedia resources from the e‑textbook,

• interactive whiteboard/blackboard, felt‑tip pen/a piece of chalk.

Lesson plan overview (Process):

Introduction:

1. The teacher presents the goal of the lesson: You will learn about the tasks of local government bodies.

2. The teacher asks the students to discuss the following subject in pairs: Recall the problem you have had to solve recently, the decision you had to make about something – alone or as a family, with a group of friends, etc. It doesn't necessarily have to be serious, it could be a decision on how to spend the afternoon for example. Answer the following questions:

• Who knew best what your needs were and had the best idea how to meet them?

• What solution did you come up with?

• Who implemented this solution?

• Did you need any kind of help in this regard? Whose? Why?

3. Afterwards, the teacher asks willing / selected students to present their findings. The teacher draws the students' attention to the fact that in the case of many problems, they themselves (or the group that made the decision) knew best what they needed and how to make it happen. The teacher also helps the students to identify situations in which they needed help from someone outside the group (when they did not have the resources to implement the solution themselves or a better solution could be achieved thanks to someone coordinating their cooperation with someone else / other group).

4. The teacher informs the students that this exactly is what the principle of subsidiarity is about – communes, i.e. local communities, determine their own needs and interventions from higher levels of management occur only when the problem cannot be solved at the commune level or when its solution on a higher level is more effective. The teacher asks the students to provide, on the one hand, examples of issues that are solved at the commune level, and on the other, of those that are entrusted to poviats or voivodeships (e.g. road construction, school management at different levels), as well as asks them to indicate why this is the case.

Implementation:

1. The teacher asks a willing/selected student to read Article 164 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland contained in the abstract (or plays the recording). The teacher asks the students to indicate the provision that embodies the principle of subsidiarity and informs them that this provision is referred to as the assumption of competency of the commune. The teacher asks the students to explain what their understanding of the concept of „assumption of competency” is. Willing/selected students present their opinions, while the teacher corrects and supplements what they are saying.

2. The teacher divides the class into four groups. The teacher informs the students that they will use the Phillips 66 method. The task of each group is to determine the competencies of a local government community (commune, poviat, or voivodeship) and of government administration bodies assigned to them (the teacher assigns one local government community and government administration bodies to each group), as well as to find concrete examples of actions that the local government community / government administration bodies have recently taken within their competencies in the students' place of residence. For this purpose, students can use their own knowledge as well as the abstract and other internet sources. The teacher sets a time limit for this task and, if necessary, explains the working method to the students.

a. The students analyse, in groups, the competencies of the local government community / government administration bodies assigned to them and find examples of concrete actions taken within these competencies. They have 6 minutes to do so.

b. Then they confront their solutions with the rest of the class and work again to improve them for the next 6 minutes.

c. Once again, there is a confrontation of ideas in the classroom - a comparison of the maturity of solutions and their improvements.

d. The students write down final conclusions or make corrections again for the next 6 minutes.

If necessary, the teacher corrects and completes what the students are saying.

During subsequent presentations of the groups' work results, the students take advantage of the „The most important tasks of the local government” scheme displayed by the teacher on an interactive whiteboard.

3. In order to consolidate the knowledge acquired during the previous task, the students solve Exercise 1. Selected/willing students present their answers to the rest of the class. Together with the teacher, the students verify their answers. In addition, the teacher can ask the students why they think each community has been assigned these tasks exactly.

4. The teacher informs the students that by brainstorming, they will determine where the communes draw funds from for the implementation of their tasks (own and commissioned). The teacher sets a time limit for this task and appoints a moderator who will write the ideas of his/her colleagues on the board. The students recall all the circumstances in which their commune gains funds for the implementation of its tasks (to help the students, the teacher can ask a simpler question, e.g. „What does my commune make money on?”). After the creative brainstorming phase, the students' ideas are confronted with the abstract's content. The teacher asks the students if there are any commune revenue sources they did not think about earlier or were mistaken about. Willing/selected students answer the question, while the teacher corrects and completes these answers, when necessary. At the end of the exercise, the teacher asks a willing/selected student to summarise it.

Summary:

1. As a summary, the teacher asks the students to use the abstract's generator in order to create one test question of a single choice. The question is supposed to relate to the class topic. Then the students exchange the test questions or solve a couple of them together. The teacher ensures that the task is carried out correctly.

2. Homework proposal:

a. What does the commune/poviat/voivodeship do where I live? Select one of the local government communities other than the one you worked on during the lesson and do the same exercise for this community: describe its competencies and provide examples of concrete actions.

b. Listen to the abstract recording to review the material and new vocabulary. Then do the vocabulary exercise at the end of the chapter.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

What does the local government do?

The functioning of the local government in Poland is based on the principle of subsidiarity. This means that the higher levels of local government (poviat or voivodeship) should only act is the commune and its authorities are not able to effectively carry out its functions.

The Constitution indicates that the local government units fulfills the so‑called direct responsibilities, i.e. public tasks which are supposed to meet the needs of the local community. In addition, on the basis of a statute, the local government may be commissioned to perform other public tasks, if it is justified by the needs of the state. Those delegated tasks (allocated duties) include for example keeping the Register of Business Activity or issuing identity cards. They are performed at the expense of the state budget and under the control of government administration.

Comparing the competences of the commune and the poviat shows that there are areas in which both local government units perform their tasks. Education is one of them. In practice, the division of tasks is simple: the commune authorities run kindergartens and primary schools, and the poviats - the secondary schools. On the other hand, cities with poviat rights perform tasks of both the commune and the poviat. This means that in the case of education cities with poviat rights run all three types of educational institutions.

The most important task of the voivodeship local government is to define the voivodeship development strategy. Such a document should serve the development of national, civic and cultural consciousness as well as the strengthening of the local identity of the inhabitants. It should stimulate the activity, competitiveness and economic innovativeness, help protect the cultural and natural environment and ensure the spatial order of the voivodeship. Additionally, the voivodeship local government carries out the regional development policy, which can be co‑financed from the state and the European Union budgets, as well as other international sources.

Apart from that, the voivodeship local government performs tasks in areas belonging to communes and poviats basing of the principle of subsidiarity.

The Constitution sets out the basic rules for financing of the local governments activities:

• providing the local governments with a share in public revenues adequately to the duties assigned to them;

• indication of the basic sources of income of the local governments in the form of their own revenues, general subsidies and specific grants from the state budget;

• granting the right to determine the amount of taxes and local fees to the local governments;

• linking the alterations to the scope of duties of local government units with appropriate changes in the distribution of public revenues.

The most important commune’s own revenues are:

• local tax revenues,

• local fees revenues,

• share in income taxes constituting state budget income,

• income from the commune’s property.

Another source of income for local government units is the so‑called general subsidy, coming from the state budget.

Local governments may also receive specific grants, designated for financing the duties allocated to the local government by the statutes or co‑financing of investments and programs implemented with the financial support of the European funds.