Teachers will lose their jobs

Deputy Minister of Education and Science Vaidas Bacys said in a recent edition of “Veidas” that the number of schools in Lithuania in a few years time can be reduced by nearly 300 centers in relation to the current status. Number of employed teachers will be declined about 5.000.
“Every year school grants are reduced about 80 million litas. The annual budget of one large school is about 3 million litas. That means that every year are closed 30 large schools. Currently in Lithuania are 1.3 thousand schools. According to the forecasts in a few years time there will be only one thousand schools and the number of teachers is said to decrease from 37 thousand to 32 thousand.”- said Vaidas Bacys.

According to “Veidas” the number of students in Lithuania decreased to 23.2 thousand and 737 teachers. Centre of Information Technology of Education admits that at the beginning of the school year 2011-2012 in education was employed 37.4 thousand teachers and administrative employees.

“There are positive changes for teachers. Earlier on one teacher was 10.9 students, now only 10.5. Rising fertility rate may have an impact on Vilnius and Kaunas schools, however, not on rural ones.”- said Deputy Minister of Education and Science Vaidas Bacys.

Teachers Association of Polish Schools in Lithuania “Macierz Szkolna” looks at the situation from another perspective. “Polish schools will experience a greater risk in areas where on larger area are two schools – one with the native language and another with minority one. In that case, for schools with Polish language may be harder to compete for students”- said to “Wilnoteki” vice president of “Macierz Szkolna” Krystyna Dzierżyńska. “These are only numbers, but we must remember that behind them are people who lose their jobs” – added Krystyna Dzierżyńska.

Source: http://www.wilnoteka.lt/pl/artykul/nauczyciele-straca-miejsca-pracy

Tłumaczenie Daria Bergmann w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Daria Bergmann within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.