Education and Science, EU – Baltic States, Forum, Lithuania

Photo: seimas.lt

At the forum, Chairman of the Lithuanian Education Trade Union Audrius Jurgelevicius confirmed that educators face financial issues due to the existing payment procedure. "At present Lithuanian teachers averagely work barely a half of the work week – 21 hours. As a result, there are 40,000 of underemployed persons in the education system, people, whom the state cannot guarantee a full time employment," said Jurgelevicius. Trade unions say they lack a strategic view of the state on the regulation of the number of teachers. In their opinion, if the state allowed teachers to take early retirement, teachers, who remained to work, would have more work hours.

Yesterday, the forum of teachers at the Seimas also paid much attention to the fact that lately pupils are aware only of their rights, but not of their duties; therefore, they are constantly insulting teachers or even using physical violence against them. Meanwhile, there are no means to tame such pupils.

According to Minister of Education and Science Dainius Pavalkis, "the model in the school, this violence perfectly reflects the current situation in the society: all the people are aware of their rights, yet they do not assume responsibility." According to the minister, to expect "that everyone would become suddenly active and politically-conscious citizens, take care that they children went to school, children would become good pupils and stop abusing teachers is unrealistic, as the schools is the mirror of the society."