The President about the Lithuanian language

The President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė and the Minister of Education and Science of Lithuania Dainius Pavalkis, during a working meeting on Tuesday, discussed the situation of education in eastern Lithuania and possible consequences of concessions in the Matura exam in Lithuanian for pupils from national minorities’ schools.  

Emotions concerning the unified exam in Lithuanian language are still boiling. A year ago, 60 thousand of signatures against the law on exam which discriminates the pupils from national minorities’ schools were collected. Yet, the then Minister of Education and Science Gintaras Steponavičius signed the bill into law. The new Minister – Dainius Pavalkis – did not unmake the law, he was only able to win a few concessions in the exam this year, which caused the indignation of many Lithuanian communities. Lithuanian teachers from Lithuanian schools, the representatives of “Rytas” Association and other organizations who had gathered 18 thousand of signatures of supporters of maintaining uniform conditions for taking exam in Lithuanian, appealed to President Dalia Grybauskaitė.

During the meeting with the Minister, the President said: “Lithuania has always been multinational and so it will remain. All are the citizens of Lithuania and any privileges are out of question. All the citizens should be provided with the same conditions necessary to get an education. Just as the Constitution states”.

During Tuesday meeting, the President instructed the Minister to pay special attention to the education and the teaching of the Lithuanian language in eastern Lithuania: “The citizens dwelling in eastern Lithuania cannot be worse educated than all other citizens. All citizens should be equally literate and the Lithuanian language should not become the hostage of any negotiations or political agreements” – underlined Dalia Grybauskaitė.

Based on: prezidentas.lt, inf.wł.

Source: http://www.wilnoteka.lt/pl/artykul/prezydent-o-jezyku-litewskim

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