Education unions are surprised by the advice without graduates who vaccinate teachers

The Ministry of Education, Science and Sports promises that these educators will not be vaccinated until the vaccination of the population aged 65 and over has been completed.

“The vaccination of secondary school teachers is still relevant. The possibility is being considered of proposing to include the rest of teachers in the priority list of people to be vaccinated immediately after the current population to be vaccinated,” the ministry informed the BNS.

Health Minister Arūnas Dulkys told BNS on Friday that the decision to include teachers and graduates in the vaccination priority group is promised to be considered next week.

Andrius Navickas, president of the Lithuanian Education Workers ‘Union, says that if the ministry decided not to postpone maturity exams this year, it should have been clear that graduates would need help and that their teachers’ vaccination had to be planned in advance. .

“It should have been taken into account that the return of graduates may be even more important than that of beginners, because there is not much left before the exams. Now we hear that teachers will be vaccinated in order of priority, ”said A. Navickas.

In addition, teachers are also skeptical about the decision that no more than five graduates can participate in the consultation, regardless of the epidemiological situation of the municipality.

“It is not clear for teachers whether to select the best five and consult, or the worst five, or organize those consultations five times. Furthermore, these payments are only symbolic of what they really correspond to such complex work for exam preparation” said A. Navickas.

As far as he knows, schools will not be in a rush to make inquiries as early as Monday, as there is still a lot of uncertainty.

“It will be difficult to organize consultations just because of the formation of several groups, there will be fears that, as we can see, there are many people who do not want to return without the vaccine. We will probably have discussions here next week, there will be some changes, “he said.

Egidijus Milešinas, president of the Lithuanian Education and Science Union, also says he hears similar fears from teachers. According to him, on Friday the union wrote to the government “to change priorities as soon as possible by allowing twelve-year-old teachers to be vaccinated.”

“When they announce on Wednesday that they are going to open those schools, our union receives questions almost every day that we want to be vaccinated, but we are not allowed. In addition to the fact that there is no chance for teachers to get vaccinated because they are not in the priority group, we are also getting signs that principals are not going to provide protective equipment. It was said that we gave them the panel sometime in September, and that is already an offer. So this is a problem, if on Monday we get the news that security procedures are being violated, we will really react, ”said E. Milešinas.

As far as he knows, part of the country’s school consultations are already starting on Monday.

The union leader also claims that educators also raise salary issues, not knowing how to select students, as in some cases it would take even six consultations to help prepare the exams for the whole class.

According to the Ministry’s calculations, there are at least 10 thousand people in Lithuania. teachers who teach lessons to twelfth graders. A total of 390 thousand salaries were assigned to teachers who will help graduates prepare for the maturity exams. euros.

According to E. Milešinas, some teachers fear that funding has yet to be approved by city councils, and not all are in a hurry to do so.

“We received the news that educators are not even offered to spend that money yet, that is, they are not offered to work and pay for it under the Labor Code agreement, and simply, as far as we know, to expand the workload. Today, they talk about how it will be paid. I spoke with a teacher in a gym who stated that she would lead the consultations on Monday and postpone her lessons that day. It will be a great burden for the twelfth grade teachers, “said E. Milešinas.

The ministry, for its part, says the schools themselves know better and must decide who needs counseling.

“We have no doubt that schools will ensure that counseling is arranged, prioritizing the students who need help the most,” BNS said in a response.

According to this week’s data, a total of more than 36 thousand people were vaccinated in Lithuania. employees of educational institutions: kindergarten teachers, elementary school teachers and institution administrations.

A government decision has allowed the country’s schools to conduct contact consultations with a maximum of five graduates as of Monday, regardless of their morbidity rates.