As September approaches, schools are in the dark: without serious solutions, there is a risk of catastrophe

After quarantine, she no longer wants to work at school.

Egidijus Milešinas, president of the Lithuanian Union of Education and Science (LŠMPS), says that from the available data it can be concluded that older teachers decided to leave the educational system after the quarantine.

“I think one of the main things was the increased workload. Distance learning required a lot of effort on the part of the teachers. Another thing is that teachers 60 and older are at risk. At first, they were told not to strictly allow them to work in contact, but later it became recommendations, but it caused confusion and the teachers decided to leave the educational system, “he explains.

According to Andrius Navickas, president of the Lithuanian Educators Union (LŠDPS), the teachers’ decision was likely determined not only by challenges during the quarantine.

“It was the last factor in the whole context of low wages, the government’s negative attitude towards teachers, full-time pay, where teachers lived under stress and were forced to count hours,” said Navick.

And distance learning, he said, was not an insurmountable task.

“I don’t think it’s insurmountable, it just took more effort because there are a lot of students in the classrooms and individual work requires a lot of time and effort from the teachers. To achieve good results, it is necessary to work 12-14 hours a day, it is exhausting work “Says A. Navickas.

Milesin: If there are no serious solutions, there will be a catastrophe

According to E. Milešinas, a large proportion of teachers in Lithuania are older, therefore, if they express their desire to leave the job, the situation in schools can become quite tense.

“Both we and the government are aware of the situation: the average age of a teacher in Lithuania is over 55 years, so if serious decisions are not made, there will definitely be a catastrophe in the near future,” says the union head.

According to the Employment Service, there are around 1,800 teachers looking for work, but E. Milešinas considers them, apparently not satisfied with the current offers: they do not want to work very little or go to schools in the regions.

R. Navickas agrees that the teaching profession is not yet attractive, but low wages are not the main reason why.

“Wages are not the main factor. After all, wages will increase at least 10% from September, but as we can see, teachers are still leaving. Hard work, psychological stress, large workloads, large classes: these factors are even more important to make a decision ”, the LSSD president is convinced.

Before the new school year – unknown

As September approaches, according to E. Milešinas, it is still unclear to schools how the educational process will continue.

“Until now, the situation is not completely clear, because the ministry has said during the quarantine period that strategies and plans will be prepared, so far we have not received any knowledge.” The question for the ministry is: Are they preparing, will they be preparing in the last days of August, as usual, or will they present innovations in early September? I think it would be time to put everything on the table “, – says the president of LŠMPS on the program” Delfi diena “.

“As far as I know, they are going to change even the educational plan, but so far everything is happening behind closed doors. If they do not rush and provide the educational community with all the information beforehand to prepare the school for the school year, there could be everything type of problems in September ”, he adds.

Meanwhile, A. Navickas ensures that teachers are ready to work remotely, and this situation should not affect student achievement.

“Whether they learn remotely or otherwise, motivated children will certainly not keep up with whatever subject they choose. And there should be no problem in the new school year, because teachers are ready to work both ways. We saw it perfectly, “says A. Navickas.