Press reviewed by Slawek Szefs.

GAZETA WYBORCZA is perplexed with the government's soft stand on maintaining early retirement shemes for teachers. Despite repeated declarations that such solutions are a devastating burden to the entire social security system and directly affect taxpayers, the labor minister promised teachers an extension of the privilege for many years to come - 25 to be exact! This stands in absolute contradiction to PM Tusk's declarations that his government will not give in to trade union threats based on selfish attitudes of individual professional groups, as he described it. The result attained by teachers union pressure sets a dangerous example and serves as a pointer for remaining union organizations to employ the same method. And the list of claimants is long, the paper reminds its readers. What arguments can the government rely on now when it retracted from its own hard line pronouncements? But it can surely count on the support of an army of several hundred thousand grateful teachers, cynically observes a Gazeta Wyborcza commentator.

DZIENNIK is happy with the positive perspectives for Polish taxpayers as of January. The new year will usher in a reformed fiscal system, the bigest since the introduction of universal personal and corporate income tax in Poland after the downfall of communism. The new rules do away with the highest of the 19, 30 and 40 percent set of rates and lower the basic one. The 18 and 32 percent personal income tax rates will certainly leave more in the wallet of the average bread earner. But as usual, good news is most often accompanied by some bad forecasts to offset any premature joy. The opportunity of filing a joint annual tax return by married couples might not be as profitable under the new scheme as it is now, because of the disappearance of the top rate with its income threshold. Spouses who hitherto placed in different tax brackets might find themselves in one, deaming the whole operation pointless. Secondly tax reliefs for people with school aged children will be reduced and that might be a relative loss for low income households. However, on the average, Polish taxpayers stand to gain and that's what makes the switch next year a very welcome move.

RZECZPOSPOLITA casts the spotlight on a report describing the condition of Polish schools of higher learning. In a ranking compiled by the Brussels-based Lisbon Council, Poland came at the top of the list in terms of availability of university and college education. However, from the point of view of effectivity of the learning process, Polish centers of academic education place among the poorest. And they are absolutely least attractive in Europe to foreign students, with only Hungary behind. The study also shows that while it is fairly easy to enter university in Poland, graduates find it hard to pursue a professional career. That is why more and more young Poles decide to study abroad, states the Lisbon Council report.