Šimašius in Józef Ignacy Kraszewski Gymnasium: Polish ethnic minority schools will feel good in Vilnius

The Mayor of Vilnius, Remigijus Šimašius, was present at the school year beginning grand ceremony in Józef Ignacy Kraszewski Gymnasium. According to the Mayor, the Polish school is an example of an effective introduction of a prolonged gymnasium education system.

“It is a second year as a gymnasium for our institution. The road to it was long and not always easy but our community wanted it very much. We have cooperated with the Vilnius City Council, with Jarosław Kamiński and with the Ministry of Education. It is hard work, enormous effort but also an achievement for the school”, said the director of the school, Helena Juchniewicz, at the ceremony, thanking everyone that they can “seriously and steadily work for a second year”.

Juchniewicz: Poles should enrich Lithuania

“I would like to thank the parents for choosing Polish school, for choosing our gymnasium, for wanting to learn in Polish tradition and speech”, underlined the school’s director. She talked about last-year graduates who got accepted to universities in Lithuania as well as in Poland.

“Poles should enrich the Lithuanian society, be responsible partners and citizens. We want to learn that and be like that”, she added.

Šimašius: I am in an exceptional school

“Today I am convinced that I am in an exceptional school. When I saw the freshman’s polonaise I realised that true gentlemen and ladies are brought up here. I wish everyone to find here a teacher with a capital “t” and I wish the teachers to be educators with a capital “e” and to help all the students find their way of life. I know that there is some unfinished work from the side of the local-government. It will be finished and then Polish schools will feel very good in Vilnius”, said the Mayor to the gathered.

Kamiński: Not everyone can celebrate with you

“Say what you like, but the Polish schools are competitive. Discussions about this topic are being carried out lately even in our native language. Polish schools raise talents. Polish schools’ graduates find jobs in the Lithuanian government, scientific environments, and in everyday life they are also people of success”, addressed the school community Vilnius councillor Jarosław Kamiński.

“Today you are celebrating, but not every school in Vilnius can do it so happily together with you. I hope that you will grow up to be people who do not turn away from other’s misery, that you will join and help them realize their plans. This is the role of a community”, underlined Kamiński.

So called empty benches strike is announced to be carried out tomorrow in the Vilnius Region.

The Mayor of Vilnius: Council decisions were not the best

“I know that part of the schools are going to join the strike. The biggest paradox is when I go to the Juventos gymnasium, I am being asked why I favour J. Lelewel Secondary School. And Lelewel School wants to strike. I would like to stress that an appropriate decision was not made easily. I think that those are not the best solutions, because some of the politicians wanted to politick and most of the compromises put first not students’ interests but some other ones”, said Remigijus Šimašius.

“I am happy that temporary solutions were discarded. It means that the court considered a fact that it is not worth to push things to the point of no return and that appropriate decisions need to be made. I would like to underline that the school is not only its management and teachers’ collective. Above all it is an institution which provides certain services to the society. My goal is to make those services as good as possible”, convinced the Mayor.

He added that the local-government will allow the students of the oldest classes to end their education in schools in which they actually learn.