Narkiewicz accuses the Prime Minister of Lithuania of lying

On the 4th of September (Friday) the vice-chairman of the Seimas, Jarosław Narkiewicz, issued a statement in which he accuses the Prime Minister of Lithuania, Algirdas Butkevičius of lying. Here is the whole statement.

This year, on the 2nd of September, the PM Algridas Butkevičius’ opinion about the Wednesday strike organised by the parents of students of ethnic minority schools was published in the Lithuanian media.

The Prime Minister stated that “(…)students who attend the Polish schools have around 40 % bigger “basket” [translator’s note: the amount of money spent by the state on a student] than those who, for example, learn in Lithuanian schools”.

I publicly announce that this statement is false and misleading. It needs to be pointed out that according to the methodology of counting and dividing of the “basket” resources in the ethnic minority schools in Lithuania it is bigger not by 40% but by 20%, and for those being educated according to the kindergarten education programme – only by 5%.

The Lithuanian schools situated in the Vilnius, Trakai, Šalčininkai, Elektrėnai, Širvintos, Švenčionys Municipalities receive the same “basket”, that is enlarged by 20%.

For example, a yearly “basket” of a “Ryto” Secondary School student (Lithuanian school) in Dieveniškės in Šalčininkai Municipality consist of 231,395 euro while in the neighbouring Adam Mickiewicz Secondary School (Polish school) of 197,460 euro. In addition, the pay tariff for teachers in most of the Lithuanian schools in the mentioned region is additionally raised by 5-20%.

The fact that as far as 5 years ago the “basket” was enlarged by 20% in the mentioned schools is also omitted. Meanwhile the ethnic minority schools got a “basket” enlarged only by 15% and the remaining 5% was added only to cover additional costs that appeared after the 2011 standardization of the exam in Lithuanian (teachers’ qualification, increased amount of lessons).

Another false information which the PM gave is about the funds allocated for buying textbooks.

According to Butkevičius, in the Vilnius Region three times more money is distributed for a single student of a Polish school, and in the Šalčininkai Municipality even four times more, in order to buy textbooks. In reality only 2,91 euro is allotted for textbooks that is 12,5% more than in other schools.

It is worth mentioning that the expenses of the Polish schools are bigger in comparison with Lithuanian ones. This is why the demands of Parents Forum (Forum Rodziców), that is enlarging the “basket” by 50% in ethnic minority schools, are logical and justified.

Could it be that the Prime Minister instead of listening to the citizens and solving the recurring problems strives to deceive the Lithuanian society, intimidate ethnic minorities and publicly discriminate them in order to defend his rights?

Such actions divide the Lithuanian society and ethnic minorities.

I propose that the PM publicly apologises for lying to the society and presenting made up information, and instead of making divisions in the society he begins solving publicized problems.