The statement of “Alma Mater” on the Delfi article

The Association of Teachers of Polish Schools in Lithuania “Alma Mater”, published a statement on the false information that appeared on the portal Delfi. According to the representatives of the organization, the article entitled “Who is to blame for the poor performance of Polish schools?” (“Kas kaltas delprastų lenkiškų mokyklų result?”) of 30th November this year is an attempt to manipulate the consciousness of readers.

Yesterday the Lithuanian portal Delfi reported that Polish schools in Lithuania can not boast of good quality teaching, which affects the matura examination results of students. According to a journalist of the portal, the reason for poor performance is unsatisfactory knowledge of Lithuanian among the students of Polish schools.

The data published by the portal met with indignation of the Polish community in Lithuania. According to Joseph Kwiatkowski, the President of the Association of Teachers of the Polish Schools in Lithuania “Alma Mater,” the article published on the website and the accompanying comments are yet another attempt to manipulate the consciousness of the Lithuanian recipient. The Management of the Association issued a statement in which it sharply criticized the contents put in the Delfi article. Below we present the translation of this document.

The Statement

After reading the article by M. Jackevičiusa, “Who is to blame for the poor performance of Polish schools?”, of 30 November 2011, published on the portal Delfi.lt, we declare that the information contained herein has been presented in a biased way. For the sake of comparison, poorer results have been selected, which do not reflect the actual situation.

The table of results, posted in the article, contains data even about those schools where the language of instruction is not the language of national minorities and in which there was no  final grade with the Polish language of instruction. To say that knowledge of the Lithuanian language has an impact on the preparation for the exam in English language and its results, is also not logical.

In view of the official data, which have been published on the National Examination Centre of Lithuania website, the information posted on the site does not reflect the reality. In schools with Polish language of instruction Matura exam results with subjects given by the portal are up to 1.5 times better than the related results of Lithuanian schools. We feel that the clear purpose of this article is the desire to reduce the achievements of Polish schools in Lithuania. The opinion imposed on the society is that for these schools there are no prospects in Lithuania.

http://www.wilnoteka.lt/pl/artykul/oswiadczenie-quotmacierzy-szkolnejquot-w-sprawie-artykulu-delfi-0

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