Pope Clement XIV suppressed the Society of Jesus in 1773, which forced changes in the organisation of education in the Commonwealth since it was precisely the Society that was primarily responsible for education at the primary and secondary level in the country.
The establishment of the Commission of National Education (Komisja Edukacji Narodowej, KEN) was a response to the crisis. It was officially created through the resolution of the Sejm on 14 October 1773 and took over the property of the Society of Jesus. Its establishment was initiated by Reverend Hugo Kołłątaj (1750–1812), who did not join neither the Commission nor the Society for Elementary Books. The latter, established on 10 February 1775 in Warsaw, was devoted to designing and publishing syllabuses and textbooks. Its initiator and secretary was Reverend Grzegorz Piramowicz (1735–1801).
KEN activities were based on the ideas of the Enlightenment. The main objective of the Commission was to design a new official syllabus, reorganise and recreate the system of secondary schools and create teachers’ colleges by universities (which were also under reform). The number of Latin lessons was reduced for the sake of extended education in Polish, and the sciences were introduced to regular curriculum: natural history, physics and geometry. Some of the textbooks designed in those times were still in use throughout the whole 19th century. Through their activities, KEN contributed to the secularization and nationalization of education in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, to the establishment of the new role model of a citizen-landowner and to the popularization of Physiocracy, an important socio-economic theory of the Enlightenment.
In their Universal of 24 October 1773, the Commission announced reforms in the Polish education system and the launch of its activities by specifying its aims. Those included especially changing the nature of the education and upbringing of Polish youth to a more national and civic one.
