The sword of Steponavi’cles once again over Polish schools?

The liberals of the newly elected mayor of Vilnus, Remigijus Šimašius, prior to the elections promised cheaper electricity and gas, and after the elections they start traditionally – by cutting down Polish schools. At least that is what can be inferred from the predictions of the First Vice-President of the Liberal Movement and former Minister of Education, Member of Parliament, Gintaras Steponavičius.

The former Minister, who some years ago in Parliament pushed through Education Law restricting Polish education in general, now – with the proverbial sword of Damocles – has expectations to specific Polish schools. It is about two legendary Polish schools – Joachim Lelewel High School and Wł. Syrokomla High School, which are applying for secondary school status. In Steponavičius’ opinion they do not stand a chance of obtaining it. Their closest prospect – argues the famous Minister – are primary or middle schools.

‘The Lelewel school has Polish and Russian departments, but it is obvious that as far as the number of students is concerned, this school will not be able to become a secondary school. It will be able to function as a primary or middle school’ – points out Gintaras Steponavičius in an interview for ‘Znad Willi” radio. He also added that if parents and teachers of these schools want to retain secondary school status they are welcome to establish a private institution.

‘The municipality should help them with that’ – the former Minister added cynically. Similarly, he emphasized in the radio interview that the reorganization of Polish schools must be made for the good of Polish education.

‘There are two Polish secondary schools in Vilnus. A portion of Polish schools has the right to assemble forms 11-12. Therefore John Paul II and Adam Mickiewicz secondary schools lack students, and that negatively impacts exams preparation, since they have less subjects to choose from. Thus you should see the big picture and must not turn the whole system on its head for the sake of a dozen schools’

His remarks concerned the communities of the famous 19th and 5th schools, which are currently awaiting the decision of the Ministry of Education and Science regarding secondary school accreditation.

‘We have the support of the Vilnius City Municipality. Now we are awaiting the Ministry’s decision as to when it wants to accredit us’ – in a conversation with ‘Kurier’ said Edyta Zubel, headmaster of the former 5th school, that is Joachim Lelewel High School. Her school is applying for a specialized secondary school status, which would offer pre-primary, primary and secondary school curriculum together with engineering profiled teaching.

‘We meet all the requirements of a specialized secondary school, including number of students’ – assured us the headmaster.

‘Syrokomla’ also awaits the Ministry’s decision. The school wants to implement one of the Ministry of Education’s programs based on Christian values. Both institutions received support from the municipality, but the final decision rests with the Ministry.

So far its plans for the first half of the year does not include starting an accreditation process for Polish schools. And the final decision is to be made by 1st September. So provides the Law.

Meanwhile, in Parliament there has been an initiative, supported by over 30 Members of Parliament, to postpone the date of reorganizing schools till 1st September 2018. It is probably also sought by the Ministry of Education, as it cannot keep up with the process of accrediting schools. Since, from the presented data, in the whole country, 108 out of slightly more than 450 schools still await reorganization.

That is why, the chairman of the ‘Macierz Szkolna’ society, MP Józef Kwiatkowski, remarks in a conversation with ‘Kurier’, it is a little strange that the former Minister of Education singled out the issue of two Polish schools. Moreover, an argument is made in this discussion that Lithuanian schools in Vilanus are oftentimes overcrowded, while Polish schools are allegedly empty.

‘Absolutely untrue’ – MP Kwiatkoewki ends the discussion. We inspect. According to the capital municipality data, ‘Syrokomla’ has almost 900 students, ‘Lelewel’ on Antakalnis less than a half of that, however this school has been sharing premises with a Lithuanian middle school for many years. Therefore…?

‘Both schools have almost full sets of students’ – points out Kwiatkowski.

From the municipality data something else can be inferred; that the argument of maintaining Polish schools at the expense of discriminating Lithuanian schools can hardly be seen as anything but inciting national discords. There is a number of Lithuanian schools in Vilnus that are almost empty, but that is not touched upon in the discussion. Primary school ‘Sausio 13’ is designed for 800 students, but has only 308. Less than a half of students – 420 – attend the capital city middle school ‘Senvagės’ which can accommodate about 880 students. Situation is similar in further schools – ‘Minties’, ‘Gerosios vilties’, ‘Spindulio’ and a dozen other schools with Lithuanian as a teaching language.

The chairman of ‘Macierz Szkolna’ also points out that Lithuanian politicians still do not notice the difference that while in Vilnus there are Lithuanian, Russian and Polish schools, other cities and regions have only Lithuanian schools.

‘That is why the same conditions cannot be set for all schools’ – says the chairman. He furthermore emphasizes the national minorities school status which, besides being educational institutions , often act as centers for Polish community.