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On Thursday, the opposition faction of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party in the Seimas met with the Minister of Education, Science and Sports, Jurgita Šiugždinienė, and asked her many questions about current affairs.
Consider continuing preschool in the summer
With the start of the quarantine, the country’s students switched to distance education. During the meeting it was observed that the preschool and preschool students were in an ambiguous situation.
Preschoolers may lack time to prepare for school, so the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports (MESM) would suggest continuing the educational process in the summer. In previous years, preschool children studied until the end of May.
“We understand the problem, it is very important that the curriculum comes out. We know that young children are particularly difficult to push away, they can run out of days. We are considering, as one of the options, asking permission to allow preschool-age children from preschool educational institutions to attend classes.
Clearly, there is no such requirement that the child must already learn to read or write, but it is very important that he is educated. “One of the options is to use it in the summer to prepare for school,” the minister said during the meeting.
According to ŠMSM representatives, this would not be news.
“Solutions are likely to be needed at each individual institution. Already this summer, there was a situation when kindergartens were organizing and planning the Christmas season in such a way as to guarantee preschool education, which is not so remotely effective, as well as preschool education.
A solution will also be needed this summer, so that children can get ready for school, ”said Jolanta Navickaitė, Director of the Department of General Education in the Ministry of Education and Science.
Educators will look to get vaccinated in February
During the meeting, Seimas member Vilija Targamadze encouraged the Ministry to consider possible action plans that would be taken if educators were not vaccinated in the near future.
“I would suggest thinking about possibilities such as individual and group virtual consultations. Of course, this will require funding, teachers will have to be paid, but people’s health and lives are more important, “said V. Targamadze.
J. Šiugždinienė says that so far it is planned to vaccinate teachers for February.
“The goal of all of us is to vaccinate teachers as soon as possible, and I think that in February, if nothing changes, we will continue to vaccinate preschool and primary school teachers,” said J. Šiugždinienė.
Postgraduate training plan: special tutorials and video lessons
When asked if there were any plans to vaccinate graduates, J. Šiugždinienė stated that the priority group is mainly teachers and graduates are expected to be able to return to classes when overall morbidity decreases.
“There are two important factors, the number of cases, if it goes down to more than 200, we can make some decisions and try a mixed way to get graduates back to school, second-time vaccinations, it’s harder to say here because I can really “I do not guarantee that we will get them very soon. We are going to vaccinate at this time because we all know what the situation is and it is very changing,” said the Minister.
Commenting on the proposal to prepare a contingency plan, the Minister affirms that the possibility of providing remote consultations to graduates is currently being considered and special lessons are being filmed.
“For graduates, we plan remote consultations. Today another meeting with colleges to tailor their advice to help students prepare for VBE.
If the situation is better, we will be able to organize additional live consultations in May-June, we also plan to film video lessons, we are talking with business people, we are looking for all the ways to help graduates ”, said the Minister. .
Expected explanations
As announced even before the meeting, the Social Democrats expected the minister to explain how the safety of teachers and students in schools will be guaranteed during the Covid-19 pandemic, how problems related to the quality of education are addressed.
Answers were also sought on the vaccination of teachers working in schools, the quality of digital content production and the provision of equipment, and upcoming maturity examination procedures.
The Minister also had to provide an update on the funding of higher education institutions and answer other questions.
Vilija Targamadze, a member of the faction of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP), which initiated the meeting with the minister, said even earlier that the quarantine introduced in the country highlighted the existing problems in the education system.
“Communities of teachers, students and their parents, teachers, principals, preschool educational institutions, etc. There is a lack of clarity about how the teaching / learning process will be better organized, how the problems encountered in distance education will be solved. There are many unanswered questions. We hope the Minister will bring clarity and we can contribute to solving the problems, ”said Seimas member V. Targamadze.
The cost of studies is increasing
The portal tv3.lt recalls that on Wednesday the Government approved the proposal of the Ministry of Education and Science to raise the regulatory enrollment. J. Šiugždinienė said that such a solution would help to unify the quality of studies and increase their funding.
According to the profile provided by the Ministry of Education and Science, the price groups for university studies will be reduced from 8 to 5, the individual fields of study will be redistributed and the price differences between the most expensive and higher study programs will be reduced. cheap.
Regulatory tuition fees should increase for almost all college and university studies. Prices change for participants starting in 2021.
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