The competitive Polish school

For the 18^th time in its history, the conference “Polish child at Polish school” was held on 10^th June 2013 in the council of the Vilnius Region. This event was entirely devoted to the problems of educational institutions in the aforementioned region. One of the speakers was the vice mayor of the Vilnius region, Dr Gabriel Jan Mincewicz, whose speech is presented below.

The Polish education in Lithuania can boast over 500 years of its tradition. It has experienced both the times of blossoming into prosperity and the severe years of restrictions, bans and discrimination. After the Second World War the Polish education system was intended to disappear once again. However, a single-minded, determined and active parental attitude prevailed its continuity against these attempts, so that it still remains a permanent element of the Lithuanian education system.

The national revival in Lithuania in the late 80s coincided with the new, refreshing stage for the Polish education system. The myth of the lack of perspectives for the graduates of the Polish schools was dispelled, as the number of the Polish students considerably increased. They were given an unique opportunity to study abroad. The Polish language became one of the international languages, commonly used in European institutions. Nonetheless, these positive effects were accompanied by the threats to the Polish education system. The previous myth glorifying the superiority of the Polish students attending the Russian schools was effectively substituted with a new one, highlighting the advantages of the Lithuanian schools. This statement has been constantly and insistently promoted in the media, offices and state institutions.

In spite of the continuous restrictions of the Ministry, Parliament and Lithuanian Seimas, aiming at the decline of the Polish education, these attempts proved to be unsuccessful. The Poles living in Lithuania persist in fighting for the right to be the Poles and the right to be educated in the Polish language as well. Our parents are deeply concerned (which is also constantly acknowledged by the life itself) that only Polish schools enable our children to acquire fundamental basics of knowledge and thereby ensure a better start for their further education and professional career.

The previous government ruled by the liberal-conservative parties passed on 17^th March 2011 the education law discriminating the national minorities. The current government has done literally nothing towards changing this situation, breaking all the promises given to its society. This one year of its cadence proved to be utterly barren. In such circumstances, the fight for the Polish education system, which has been conducted for the last two years, needs to be continued.

The discriminating policy of the Lithuanian government gave rise to the financing from resources of the National Investing Fund, which enabled to build several exquisite Lithuanian schools. Approximately 13-15 millions of Lithuanian litas were allocated to each of them, leaving literally nothing for the Polish schools.

As the newest example serves the decision of the education committee concerning a renovation of one school located in Podbrzezie (Paberžės). In accordance with the criterion of the committee, this school requires a renovation, even though it was fundamentally redecorated nearly 10 years ago and at that time its area was almost doubled in size. Having said that, the nearby Polish school, which was built in the times of Soviet Union and therefore requires a prompt renovation, was not granted one.

In spite of this, the Polish education does not have a decreasing tendency or a reduced number of the students in comparison to the Lithuanian schools. Since 10 years, 56% of the overall number of students have attended the Polish schools. With regard to the students with Polish origins, 4 out 5 of them go to the Polish schools in our region. These results were possible to achieve due to the fact that our schools are incessantly prestigious and competitive. The results of the tertiary education admission of our students have been also continuously above the national average. In the nationwide rankings our schools have been also frequently better than the Lithuanian ones, which are commonly regarded as being prestigious. This year numerous Polish schools have been ranked in the republican ranking significantly higher than in the previous years. For instance, the school in Medininkai has advanced from 70^th to 31^st place, the Secondary School in Pagiriai from 77^th to 74^th, the Secondary School in Nemenčinė from 125^th to 86^th, the School in Czarny Bór (Juodšiliai) from389^th to 267^th, the Secondary School in Awiżenie (Avižienių seniūnija) from 230^th to 109^th and – last but not least – the school in Kowalczuki (Kalvelių seniūnija) from 246^th to 136^th place. These  results were possible owing to the committed, devoted and careful work of the teachers of the Polish schools, which is also a clear evidence of their highest professional qualifications. Therefore, it does not come as a surprise, that numerous students who attended the Lituanian schools  frequently drop out theirs and start their education in the Polish ones. In some cases, it concerns even older schoolchildren.

What should be improved in the curricula? The school should not only enable to acquire knowledge of the basic subjects and prepare children for the working world, so that students could develop their professional careers. It needs to teach how to live in the society. Most importantly, in its smallest social cell, namely, in a family. It is widely claimed that some subjects, which actually would not be very beneficial for the students, should be introduced. In fact, it is not necessary, as the young people must not be overloaded with the number of classes and responsibilities. Nonetheless, one subject, which  has been already present for many years in the curricula of the foreign countries, is essentially inevitable, hence, has to be introduced to our schools. Its name is: Family life education. It is significantly more necessary than other subjects, in equal measure for everyone. The divorce rates significantly predominate the marriage rates (even civil ones). What hides behind it? Broken families, single mothers, abandoned children. Where should be taught about abortion – in the newspapers and in the TV? Positively, but more importantly – at schools. Therefore, we need to get rid of these empty slogans that schools are to teach and bring the children up. Let’s start educating our children about such crucial constituents of human life as friendship, true love, a proper choice concerning our prospective spouse, family life, a proper attitude towards sexual life, in accordance with the divine plan and our nature, understanding the roots of a marital crisis and the methods, how to prevent marital and family break-up, eventually about the negative consequences of contraception and highly unacceptable abortion. It is not about reinventing the wheel. We can pattern ourselves upon Polish books and curricula, since this subject has been taught there for many years. It cannot be granted by the school headmaster or the regional council. The Ministry of Education should decide upon this. It is remarkable that is has not matured for this decision yet.

However, what can be done by the headmasters, is teaching the History of Poland, even in form of optional classes. It is certainly dependent upon them. There should be no Polish school that does not offer teaching this subject.

It is wonderful that the teachers set store by the routine, simultaneously being on the lookout for the new forms and methods. Extracurricular activities are organized on a grand scale in many schools. The youth is willing to take part in these numerous after-school activities, such as artistic, sports and technical ones. Some schools, especially those with a smaller number of students (e.g. in Wesołówka), will be probably also affiliated with the Multifunctional Centre, which would enable young people to acquire new skills that would be beneficial in their professional life (e.g. they can study to be cosmetologists, hair dressers, computer technicians etc.). After graduation they would be ready to apply for a job. This would additionally contribute to a greater popularity of such schools.

In the schools of our region there are overall 8581 schoolchildren, 4842 of whom attend the Polish schools, which constitutes 56,4%. 921 children are educated in 53 Polish kindergarten groups. Furthermore, there are 35 reception classes, which look after 436 children (59,1%).

The council continues to contribute financially to the needs of the youth. For the previous summer holidays alone it subsidised 100 000 Lithuanian litas. 4 000 children of the region have exercised their free-paying dinners throughout the whole year. The teachers gain the highest possible remuneration. The council contributes also to the financing of one third part of the maintenance of children in the kindergartners. New kindergartens are being built in order to fully satisfy ever increasing requests for additional places for children. Unfortunately, the current birth rate does not appear to be auspicious, when it comes to the increasing tendencies.

I am pleased that we have been organizing this conference for 18 years. We need to raise awareness of the parents that the only proper place for the Polish child is at the Polish school. Sadly, we do not have a more spacious room at our disposal in order to gather all the parents. Hence, such conferences for should be held in particular towns, as it is the case in Nemenčinė and some other places. Another brilliant idea would be also to incorporate some performances of the local folk bands or various attractions.

We also need to be cautious about the materials that are frequently delivered to our schools, contributing to the corruption of young people, arousing their sexual erotism from their earliest years, aiming at spreading of deviations and even suicides.

The success, as we all know, does not come out of nowhere. There are numerous unexploited possibilities towards increasing attractiveness of our schools. Much is dependent upon the educationalist teams of the our institutions, both schools and kindergartens. It is our firm belief that our teachers and headmasters, who have been constantly working towards these goals, will seize every single opportunity, so that the Polish schools will be always modern in their equipment, teaching methods, as well as education, acquired knowledge and skills. So that our graduates would be extremely eloquent and examples of people living by a strong moral code. So that the Polish school would continue to sustain its attractiveness and its graduates would be worth looking up to because of their excellent education and flawless morality. Parents who do set great store by the wellbeing of their children, will be able to accomplish this goal only if they choose the school teaching in our native language.

Dr Gabriel Jan Mincewicz,

The vice mayor of the Vilnius Region

Source: http://l24.lt/pl/spoleczenstwo/item/12590-konkurencyjna-szkola-polska

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