This year’s Matura exam is coming – Lithuanian again as a ‘mother tongue’…

It is the second time when students from Polish schools in Lithuania will write Matura exam from Lithuanian language on the principles imposed by Lithuanian politicians.

Anyway, politicians can persuade their voters in several ways. The worse thing is in this huddle is that the effects of irresponsible political decisions are very painful for students.

Protests of Polish community in Lithuania – parents, teachers and students – against the amendment of the act on education, expressed by a warning strike, multiple demonstrations and a petition against the amendment of the act had been ignored.

Opinion of parents expressed by 60 thousand signings was for nothing – it was just ignored by the authorities. New version of the act was passed, and therefore students from schools of national minorities (Polish, Lithuanian and Belarusian) became victims of heartless decisions, guinea pigs of educational experiments. Students from 2013 in two years had to make up for the gaps from the teaching program for schools where Lithuanian is the teaching language. In practice it meant over 800 teaching hours to catch up (!) and intensive learning. After 2 years of marathon (the so-called transitional period), students had Matura exam from Lithuanian language. During that exam they still had simplifications which allowed students from Polish schools to write 100 words less in their essay and choose from 7, not 3 authors. Later on it turned out that students did not take advantage of those simplifications and most of them wrote essays that were over 500 words long.

Stress before the exam has been enhanced by unhealthy political emotions around the act on education, introducing standardized exam from Lithuanian. Apparently innocent exam has grown to the rank of a political issue of top priority – it caused governmental conflicts whether there should be 100 words less or more in the essay. It even became the subject of lawsuits and protests of ‘intellectuals’ who accused the ruling coalition of introducing simplifications for a national minority. In their opinion these simplifications ‘are detrimental for Lithuanian culture, community of citizens and for the country.’ It is nothing that students were forced to learn too intensely. It is nothing that the exam caused divisions in the society.

After last year’s Matura exam, the Supreme Administrative Court stated that ‘the country has a duty to provide members of national minorities with opportunities for learning in their mother tongue,’ but also ‘has a right to specify and demand to acquire a certain level of the state language,’ at the same time creating ‘proper conditions for learning the state language.’ It is the worst with the last issue – proper conditions were not created at all. Instead of preparing suitable programs for intense learning of Lithuanian language, appropriate for the needs of students from national minorities, relevant educational aids for teachers and textbooks for students, instead of training teachers and introducing gradual changes from the first grade – students were faced with a fact that they have immediately acquire the state language on the same level as their friends from Lithuanian schools.

Lithuanian philologist from John Paul II High School in Vilnius admits that the last year was a shock for Polish students writing an exam from Lithuanian and for teachers of Lithuanian.

‘We had to quickly adapt to the changes. It was a shocking situation. This year we are already used to new requirements, we are working and preparing for the Matura exam. Results differ – some students write the exam better, some do it worse.

We should point out that nobody who is reasonable would deny the necessity to learn Lithuanian state language. Students successfully (maybe too successfully?) learned this language also before the amendment of the act on education in March 2011. They were passing exams, getting to universities in Lithuania, joining normal life. After 2011 they were forced to intensely learn the state language, because the authorities wanted Lithuanian to become a second mother tongue for Poles, Russians and Belarusians. In practice it meant that national minorities had to immediately make up for the differences in teaching programs in over 800 teaching hours in a short period of 2 years.

The learning process resembled an obstacle race because no special programs or teaching aids were developed.

‘We really had little time to make up for the differences that separate us from schools with Lithuanian as a teaching language,’ says Angėlė Jundo, Lithuanian philologist from Jan Śniadecki High School in Soleczniki, about the decision to standardize the exam from Lithuanian. ‘Current students from Polish schools had started to learn Lithuanian from the second grade (while their peers – first grade students from Lithuania already have even 7 hours per week in the first grade – from the author). In grades from 2 to 10 students learned according to a program prepared for schools of national minorities, and last year they had to write Matura exam according to a program for Lithuanian schools. Current twelve grade students had only 2 hours of Lithuanian per week in their second, third and fourth grade (in Lithuanian schools 8+7+7 hours – from the author). They were learning the language from scratch, totally unlike the children from Lithuanian families. In grades from 5 to 10 they had 4 hours per week. Overall they had significantly fewer hours.’

What were the effects of standardizing the exam? Of course, results of the exam from Lithuanian language were much worse than usual among students from schools of national minorities. According to data of the State Examination Commission, in schools of national minorities, including the Polish ones, the exam from Lithuanian was passed by 88.83 per cent of students. In schools with Lithuanian as a teaching language 90.19 per cent of students had passed.

‘On last year’s Matura exam from Lithuanian our students did much worse than in previous years,’ says headmaster of John Paul II High School in Vilnius, Adam Błaszkiewicz. ‘It was predictable, because students were learning according to different programs (Lithuanian as mother tongue and Lithuanian as state language – from the author). Moreover, exams in form of an essay are very difficult to mark objectively.’

Lithuanian philologist Angėlė Jundo admits that it is impossible to acquire a foreign language on the same level as ‘gimtakalbiai’ – users of language who grew up with it.

‘Polish students speak and write in Lithuanian, but you can feel that they think in their mother tongue. Grammar, spelling and style are not perfect,’ says the philologist. ‘Style can be tricky on an exam. Lithuanian for them is not a mother tongue, it is a learnt language.’

Łucja Mickiewicz-Ozarowska, a Lithuanian philologist from M. Baliński High School in Jaszuny has a similar opinion:

‘Polish students find grammar the most difficult. They have already mastered writing essays during their classes from Polish; they know the structure and composition of an essay. Correctness of expression and style remains the biggest problem. And there is no time left for catching up. That is why now I spend a lot of time on grammatical issues in middle grades.’

What is more, in a project on evaluation criteria of exams from Lithuanian state language, completed until 2020 and published on NEC website, there is an aim to eliminate grammar mistakes in works marked with the highest number of points. While now students can get the highest score for written assignments in which there are 1-3 grammatical, two lexical and two punctuation mistakes, in 2020 in works with the maximum score there won’t be any mistakes allowed for all students, regardless of their nationality.

‘Students feel pressure. Their second semester is especially difficult – they start mock exams, get credits for the exam, they have a lot of homework to do. Many of them complain that they are burdened and overworked,’ says a school psychologist Lucyna Gilewska from John Paul II High School in Vilnius. ‘Some students are trying to keep up with too many duties by setting priorities – which subjects are the most important and which can be ‘neglected’. But it mostly depends on students, on their attitude towards learning. There are students who do their best but there are also those who pass with the lowest grades. Students generally complain on time pressure, on too much homework and on the fact that sometimes they even have 9 hours per day.’

This year, in order to get the secondary school certificate (Matura), twelve grade students have to pass at least two state exams – a mandatory exam from Lithuanian language and literature and an exam on a subject of their choice (e.g. biology, chemistry, physics, geography, IT, history, mathematics, foreign languages – English, French, Russian, German). Including the exam from Lithuanian, students can (although they do not have to) write the maximum of 7 state exams. In school exams category they can write exams on musicology, technology, arts and their mother tongue (Belarusian, Polish, Russian, German).

On the exam from Lithuanian students will receive 2 topics for an analytical essay and 2 topics for an essay on literature. Therefore they will be allowed to choose one from four topics. While writing the exam they will be allowed to use the ‘Dictionary of contemporary Lithuanian language’. In their analytical essay they will have to elaborate the subject on the basis of work of one (out of three) authors given for the topic. In their essay on literature they will analyze the work of two authors – one chosen from 3 names given, another of their own choice. They have to score at least 30% of points for the essay in order to pass the exam.

‘During the evaluation of exams there are more grammar, punctuation and stylistic mistakes allowed in essays of students from schools for national minorities,’ says Lithuanian philologist Angėlė Jundo. ‘Length of the essay has to be the same as for students from Lithuanian schools. There are the same requirements when it comes to elaborating the subject, giving appropriate arguments, showing historical and biographical context.’

How do students feel before the exam?

‘It is really hard,’ says Aleksandra Paramonowa from Adam Mickiewicz High School in Vlnius. ‘Yesterday I had 9 hours, today 8, tomorrow I will have 7. I go to sleep at 12 p.m., wake up at 6.30. I’m not able to prepare for all subjects – I have to catch up on them during breaks between classes.’

She is graduating this year and planning to study biology on the university, hence her choice of subjects for the Matura exam is: chemistry, biology, languages – necessarily her mother tongue Polish, state Lithuanian language, and also Russian. Additionally – mathematics. It gives a total of 6 exams.

‘Our Lithuanian teacher really devotes herself,’ says Aleksandra. ‘We already had several mock exams – we were working after school, for 4 hours, just like on the exam. Such trials are good because you can ascertain the time and generally test yourself. I’m doing pretty good so far.’

Anna Vostruchovaitė, another this year’s graduate, also states that there is too much work in school. Every teacher requires a good knowledge of the subject from students. Classes at school, additional classes and doing homework are very time-consuming.

‘After additional classes from art I get home at 8 p.m. and that is when I start doing my homework,’ – she says. ‘I’m planning to go to university in Poland, which is why I’m writing 3 exams – Polish, Lithuanian and English. I think that today it would be easier for me to write an essay from Lithuanian than from Polish, because we have so many hours and practical classes to master this subject that it really won’t be a problem.’

Students and teachers have no other option – they have to realize the extended program. Students care about good results because that is what they future depends on, it is their ‘to be or not to be’ on the university, most preferably on majors funded by the country. With a heavy heart, one teacher states that today’s students resemble workhorses with blinders which are attached to a loaded cart and they pull their burden obediently.

Surveys of PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) show that Lithuanian educational system is badly organized. In comparison to their peers from 65 countries, 15-year-olds from Lithuania are below the average when it comes to their mathematics, reading and natural sciences. Surveys have shown that students from Lithuanian schools are not able to use acquired information in particular situations, they are unable to analyze, use information creatively in new situations, predict, and adopt decisions based on evidence.

It seems that in a blind pursuit of perfecting and exalting the state language, a much more important thing had escaped the attention of politicians – that thing is to create a qualitative educational system and to educate thinking, intelligent young people.

The Forum of Parents from Polish schools in Lithuania in Soleczniki region is constantly demanding changes in the Education Act:

‘Parents from Polish schools in Lithuania do not agree for introducing standardized exam from the state language. Our children were and still are not as prepared for the subject as their peers from Lithuanian schools. There is no transitional period to catch up on backlogs of the program, no professional program to align natural language differences, no textbooks and teaching aids. It is a shameful and despicable behavior of the authorities towards people who are about to enter the adult life,’ wrote parents in their letter addressed to Jarosław Narkiewicz, a MEP on behalf of AWPL (Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania).

According to the Vice President of the Parliament and chairman of parliamentary committee of education Jarosław Narkiewicz, corrections to the Education Act are already registered in the Parliament and the estimated time of their examination is during this year’s spring session:

‘We have to include corrections to the Education Act in the program of spring parliament session until 20 February. Corrections concern changing the decision about standardizing Lithuanian language and teaching some of the subjects.

One of the corrections says: ‘All general education schools provide Lithuanian language teaching according to the program of Lithuanian state language and the program of Lithuanian mother tongue, approved by the Minister of Education because of uneven conditions for using and teaching Lithuanian state language and Lithuanian mother tongue.’

In justification it is stated that Lithuanians (gimtakalbiai) acquire the language in a natural way, while students for whom it is a foreign language acquire it formally, i.e. during their school education. Differences in language skills are increased by unequal number of hours devoted to teaching the language in primary and secondary school. Users of Lithuanian as a foreign language have significantly fewer teaching hours, and that is why programs for teaching Lithuanian language and evaluating students also have to be different.

Source: http://kurierwilenski.lt/2014/02/14/tegoroczna-matura-coraz-blizej-litewski-znow-jako-ojczysty/

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