Demography, Education and Science, Lithuania, Society
International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics
Wednesday, 24.04.2024, 00:29
School enrollment halves in Lithuania over 16 years
Data provided by the magazine suggests that there were 604,000 students
enrolled in schools of general education in Lithuania in 2001, as compared to
merely 330,800 attending schools in 2017. The sharpest decline of 3.5 times was
reported in the Visaginas municipality, with a drop by a factor of nearly three
recorded in the districts of Neringa, Skuodas, Pagegiai, Zarasai, Alytus,
Anyksciai, Ignalina, Varena, etc. Even the growing municipalities of the cities
of Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipeda reported student numbers shrinking by about 1.5
times.
"The demographic gap has a major effect on our school and higher
education system," Gintaras
Safarinas, editor-in-chief at Reitingai, told a news conference on
Wednesday.
In his words, the demographic tendencies show that some municipalities may
in the long run end up with merely one school and pre-school institution.
Sarafinas said the small number of students, especially in schools in rural
areas with 30-40 students, has a drastic negative effect on the quality of
education, as the institutions lack specialists, with the same teacher teaching
a few subjects to elementary students and even gymnasium students.
According to the data published in the magazine, the country's gymnasiums
worst prepare students for the state graduation examination of the Lithuanian
language and best prepares them for the Russian language exam.