Polish Parents appeal to the government for cancellation of the Education Act

Forum of Polish Schools’ Parents in Lithuania issued a statement with the claim for cancellation of the amended Educational Act. In the Forum’s opinion Lithuania fails in its duty to secure the proper conditions for learning national language for the children from national minorities.

‘The current textbooks, as well as the national language curriculum are not adjusted for children’s needs at all. There is lack of curricula which would provide with equal range of knowledge of national language. The teachers are not trained sufficiently to complete the curriculum differences. The Ministry of Education doesn’t provide teachers with any methodological counseling nor does it support those who want to solve the problem’ – as it is written in a special statement addressed to the Lithuanian Prime Minister and Minister of Education.

‘The current actions of the Ministry of Science and Education of Lithuania are planned and well coordinated and its aim is to induce the knowledge of a national language among children from the national minority to be as poor as possible. Such actions together with the ban on using the national minorities’ languages in public space aim at the destruction of the Polish minority which has been living at Vilnius Region for centuries’ – alerts the Forum.

The amended Education Act of 17 March 2011 has unified the Matura exam in Lithuanian language for national minorities’ schools.

Source: http://zw.lt/wilno-wilenszczyzna/polscy-rodzice-apeluja-rzadu-o-odwolanie-ustawy-o-oswiacie/

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