Barbara Anna Nowacka (born 10 May 1975) is a Polish politician who has served as Minister of National Education since December 2023.

Her mother was listed on the flight manifest[1][2] of the Tupolev Tu-154 of the 36th Special Aviation Regiment carrying the President of Poland Lech Kaczyński which crashed near Smolensk-North airport near Pechersk near Smolensk, Russia, on 10 April 2010, killing all aboard.

She went on from that defeat to join Janusz Palikot's Your Movement, becoming a joint leader, and helped to create the United Left, a broad coalition.

[5] In 2016, Foreign Policy magazine included Nowacka, together with Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk of Razem, on its annual list of the 100 most influential global thinkers for their role in organizing protests against a total ban on abortion in Poland.

[6] In June 2019, Nowacka became leader of the political party Polish Initiative (iPL), which she originally founded as an association in 2016.

When in October 2020 the Polish parliament considered placing stricter enforcement on abortion, Nowacka claimed that the Catholic bishops of Poland, the majority of whom strongly support such legislation, had "blood on their hands".

[8] She later attended a protest against the new abortion restrictions, where she was tear-gassed by a police officer after approaching him and showing her ID card.

[15] As Minister of National Education, Barbara Nowacka has introduced many changes deemed controversial, especially by historians and conservatives.