Kwiatkowski: I support teachers’ demands

The teachers’ demands are justified, however, the strike might have the negative effects – said Jozef Kwiatkowski, a president of the Association of Teachers of Polish Schools in Lithuania “Macierz Szkolna” in the interview with zw.lt.

Currently, in Lithuania there is a countrywide teachers strike, directed against imposed by the authorities new tenure-based pay system. “I support teachers’ demands, but the strike might have the negative results for the teaching process.” – said Jozef Kwiatkiwski, a president of “Macierz Szkolna”, in the interview with zw.lt. As also pointed out by Kwiatkowski, the new tenure-based pay system is a good solution, whereas the new method of calculating payments was introduced too quickly without prior consultation. “This was done hurriedly. There is a lack of system’s transparency. We can observe that some of the schools benefited on the change, while the others have lost” – he emphasized.

“When starting a reform, you must have the adequate money, and if you do not have it, you should not exasperate people” – said Kwiatkowski.

The strike is also attended by teachers from Polish educational institutions in which there are trade unions. “We support teachers’ protest, but we do not take part in it. The institution has no trade union, individual teachers of our junior high school attended the rally at the Seimas.”- said the director of the John Paul II Gymnasium in Vilnius, Adam Błaszkiewicz.

In Kwiatkowski’s opinion, the whole confusion is also a result of the lack of agreement among the union members. Today, the leader of the education union, Andrius Navickas, said that the agreement signed yesterday (4th of December) by three trade unions has nothing to do with his demands, and therefore the strikers will remain in the ministry building. Navickas himself did not sign the document, according to which the Ministry of Education would improve the system of full-time remuneration. The other two unions postulate for the elimination of the payroll reform, which was introduced in September last year.