The government’s decision pleasantly surprised the Seimas member: some children will soon have nowhere to study

The proposal argued that, according to the Lithuanian Department of Statistics, Lithuania’s population is growing in an increasing number of municipalities. 2016-2020 grew up in Vilnius City, Vilnius District, Kaunas District, Klaipėda District Municipalities.

It is also stated that in 2016-2019. Immigrants in Vilnius city and district, Kaunas city and district, Klaipėda city and district municipalities almost doubled the number of emigrants.

According to the Department of Migration, about 50 percent. All the immigrants were Lithuanian citizens, most of whom were returning from the United Kingdom (UK) and Western Europe. It was added that citizens of Belarus and other countries in the eastern neighborhood will also often choose Lithuania in the future, and it was emphasized that in all of Lithuania in 2016-2019. The number of preschool students increased from 117 thousand. up to 121 thousand.

“All this will only lead to greater pressure on the educational system, which will have to adapt quickly to the growing challenges and create places of learning,” said the proposal and recalled that the reforms to the Education Law children will begin to attend them and preschoolers will participate in general education.

According to ŠMSM estimates, the implementation of this plan will require at least € 83 million. Eur will be financed over the next few years, but the additional need for investment in infrastructure could significantly increase this amount.

“It should be noted that the Government’s program establishes that all children must receive an accessible and quality initial education, the conditions for attendance at kindergartens must be created and attendance at kindergartens must be compulsory for children from families at social risk.

Meanwhile, last year, the investment program of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport for general education amounted to only 5 million. Eur per year for all of Lithuania. Such volumes do not meet the needs of a growing Lithuania, ”the authors of the proposal explained.

The proposal was rejected

Unfortunately, all the arguments presented were not convincing to colleagues in the Government and the proposal was rejected after the presentation. V. Mitalas said that in Lithuania there are more and more growing regions and more and more regions that experience population changes due to birth rates, internal and external migration.

“We see that more and more Lithuanians are returning and all this presupposes that in some places there is already a shortage of educational institutions. For example, the need for investments of the city of Vilnius in education alone may reach 50 million next year. euros. Among these are the construction of a new school in Pilaitė, the construction of a new kindergarten in Pašilaičiai, the design in Perkūnkiemi and in Pilaitė itself. So far, the state has allocated only 5 million LTL to the general education investment program. Eur per year for all of Lithuania “.

According to him, this is a third of the cost of building a school. The politician recalled that the Gabija progymnasium built in Pašilaičiai cost around 15 million. EUR.

“All the time, the state allocated 5 million. Eur and then, by individual coincidences, money was wasted if someone managed to get closer to the apparatus of the Government than during the budget deliberations. My suggestion is that all this budget rain in education be reviewed and concentrated in regions that are really growing, they need to build new educational establishments and allocate 30 million for this.

In his opinion, even in these difficult times when it is really necessary to address covid problem, but education should not be forgotten either.

“All the more so since the education investment program is already loaded with a wide variety of things, so you just need to review them and ensure a clear principle.”