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Although thousands of children tend to go to schools and kindergartens after the New Year, this January is a little different: but for at least a month, many of them will have to study remotely. The exceptions apply only to the children of doctors, officers, nurses, or others who must work locally.
The municipal administrations are obliged to provide distance education, care and feeding to these primary school students in schools, nurseries or other institutions. The same procedure was followed in the spring.
According to the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports (ŠMSM), there are not many people willing to send children to schools during the quarantine. According to preliminary data received from 50 municipalities, around 700 primary school children attended schools, most of them in Vilnius. So far, ten municipalities have not provided data. In total, about 30% of local education is now provided. all institutions that provide primary education.
According to all requirements, education in one room cannot be carried out by more than 10 children and groups must be permanent. According to ŠMSM, today an average of 3 children study in a group.
Several children study on the spot
Although schools in major cities reportedly received the largest number of people willing to return, children who were unable to study at home were divided into institutions. A total of 222 primary school children in Vilnius on January 4. crossed the thresholds of their schools.
So far, there are seven such students at Vilnius Rytas Progymnasium. According to the school director, Roberta Juodelienė, they are the children of doctors and public officials. Although they are all second class and study in one room, they do not work together, but with their classes, remotely.
“In fact they come, because there are seven of them, they learn the hygiene rule in a room kept at all distances. They don’t have their own computers, we as a school provide tablets, ”says R. Juodelienė.
Primary school children are not supervised by teachers but by their assistants, as the teachers themselves now also work remotely from home.
“So far everything has gone very well, there are no challenges. Trained teachers, trained assistants. It is no longer the first day that we started working remotely, ”says Vilnius Rytas Progymnasium director.
At another school in the capital, Jonas Basanavičius progymnasium, there are even fewer children, just two. However, the director of the Jurgita Nemanienė institution does not see a problem in that: the children also study remotely, along with their classes, and are supervised by full-time school teachers.
“We have two primary school children. Lessons are not taught live, they learn remotely, they only learn at school, not at home. {…} We have very positively accepted this idea, we want solidarity, we understand the situation. We support to very doctors. I think when you look at the process in a positive way and solve all the problems, “says the school principal J. Nemanienė.
Schools feel ready
Dainius Žvirdauskas, director of the Kaunas KTU Engineering School and president of the Lithuanian Association of School Leaders, also assures that the institutions have managed to prepare for new forms of education, but the number of people willing to come to schools changes every day, so problems may arise in the future.
“I think it is too early to talk about it, because the scope is not clear yet. One thing we know for sure is that leaders have prepared themselves, schools have prepared for this new form of education. I imagine it will be partially implemented. if the quarantine lasts ”, says D. Žvirdauskas.
According to him, KTU Engineering Lyceum has not yet received students who want to study in classrooms, not at home, but they are also prepared for such a situation.
“Until now there have been no such wishes, several mothers were interested, but Sake will decide later.
We have prepared computer classrooms, there are informed support specialists – psychologists, teacher assistants, librarians, who if necessary will help them to participate in education.
The cafeteria staff were also informed that, depending on the number of students, food would be provided, ”explains the president of the Lithuanian Association of School Leaders.
According to data from the Kaunas City Municipality, no primary school students appeared in the city’s schools on Monday. There were only four of them in the entire city on Tuesday.
“We believe the main reason for this is parental awareness. Of course, access to sickness benefits and a greater focus on raising a child at home is also a compelling argument. The small number of children brought in It may also have been contributed by the continued leave of the older children, which allowed the older children in the family to care for the younger siblings.
However, both days the schools received calls from parents and inquiries about the possibilities of bringing children, clarified the situation, ”explains Kaunas City Municipalities. ŠHead of the Department of Education Ona Gucevičienė.
Parents of kindergarten and elementary school children can receive the benefit
The number of returnees to educational institutions is now slightly lower, also due to the recently announced compensation for parents who care for them at home.
From now on, parents who cannot combine work and childcare will be able to receive a certificate of incapacity for work and sickness benefit again. Such support belongs to the working parents, guardians or grandparents of both primary and kindergarten children. If there is more than one child in the home, both parents can receive the benefit.
The minister also assured that the disability benefit will be paid for 14 days, but if it is seen that it is necessary to extend the payment period of the benefit, this will be discussed.
“If it is quarantine, then, as much as necessary, the incapacity to work will be granted,” added Julita Varanauskienė, director of Sodra.
Lina Bagdanavičienė, President of the Association of Directors of Early Childhood Education Institutions and Director of Druskininkai “Bitutė” Kindergarten, says that these benefits are especially useful for parents of kindergarten children. Some of them had previously expressed dissatisfaction with the new system and complained that it was extremely difficult to reconcile working and caring for a preschool child at home.
“Currently, there are fewer children attending kindergarten. It depends on the cities, the municipality, it is very different. But which is actually smaller, ”says L. Bagdanavičienė.
According to her, several kindergartens currently offer coeducation, so parents who care for their children at home are also assisted by teachers.
“Yes, both face-to-face education and distance education are carried out in my own institution. We come together, we communicate with parents, we cooperate to ensure the quality of education both in kindergarten and at home,” says the President of the Association of Directors of Preschool Education Institutions.
According to data from the Vilnius city municipality, a little over 6 thousand people still go to pre-school educational institutions in the capital alone. children: 5,098 preschoolers and 1,086 preschoolers. So far, about 30 percent of them are taken to kindergartens in Kaunas. of all the children who attend.
Progress in distance learning
D. Žvirdauskas admits that both children and teachers, both in the classroom and from a distance, return after winter break with the sadness of not being able to see them live for some time.
“Emotionally, they all long for each other, they would like to get back in touch, but when it’s safe. Or when the pandemic will no longer be of such magnitude, or when the majority of the Lithuanian population will be vaccinated. Nothing will change normal contact work, ”he says.
According to the interviewee, the progress of the schools compared to spring is most gratifying: most institutions are putting more and more efforts to make distance education as contact-like as possible.
“There are quite a few schools that don’t even change the schedule, working at the same pace. Go to a meeting, it is like the transmission of a lesson. Throughout the 45 minutes, they respond to the students’ mood, fatigue, and can take breaks during class. Teachers strive to keep students in the same mode as in school as much as possible.
I had to watch the PE teachers in the gym turn on the live feed, asking all the students to turn on the cameras as well. The teacher sees in detail how the students perform the exercises ”, says D. Žvirdauskas, president of the Lithuanian Association of School Leaders, about the work of educational institutions during the quarantine.
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