The new school year begins with great anxiety: fear of mandatory vaccination, teachers leave work

The government has not yet planned from which cartel to return to distance education, but has pointed out that even in a bad epidemiological situation, distance education would not apply to preschool and primary education and to graduates (graduates as of January 1). February). Education system workers have also long been sounding the alarms that teachers are being pulled out of the field en masse, not just because of previously introduced severance pay or long-term salaries, but also because of continuous learning. remote from the pandemic. The Employment Service (OCT) also warned about this.

However, according to Egidijus Milešinas, president of the Lithuanian Science and Education Union (LŠMPS), teachers are more concerned about other issues.

“When there was distance education last year, practically everyone went to distance education. Now it is stated that efforts will be made to carry out contact education, but no one knows how long. However, both last year and now, there are cases where students have to isolate themselves if they are diagnosed with coronary heart disease. <...>. In this case, such students are expected to receive hybrid education, if it is available in schools.

If no opportunities are available, distance education must be provided. So it will turn out to be both contact and distance, and it is unclear how teachers will need to organize that work. The government has not found or allocated additional money, so I do not see how it will be, “he said.

E. Milešinas says that there will definitely be illnesses, therefore the contact education will be really unbalanced.

“Last year when distance education was done, a lot of students really had to isolate themselves, but since everything was done at a distance, they didn’t feel it. It’s really not clear what will happen this year. This is the most worrying thing, ”he said.

The union president recalled that last year, contact education lasted about two months, but the larger schools had to offer blended education from the beginning of September.

“Later, one part of the students studied from home and the other, at school, so they changed every two weeks. This is really worrying and it is difficult to say how it will be organized,” said E. Milešinas.

He also added that he continues to try to negotiate with the government to seek additional financing, but so far it is not being discussed.

“Everything is found and it is irritating that it can be found for migrants, and it is already said that the minimum wage and the basic salary may increase next year, but there is still not much desire to talk about educational issues,” he added. emphasized.

When asked if teachers who, for some reason, could not be vaccinated, were satisfied with the testing system, E. Milešinas answered affirmatively. However, there were concerns about a possible government decision to end the possibility of free testing.

“So far, they do not mention the professions to which it would apply, but apparently teachers will be one of them. We, as a union, are in favor of leaving the current wording as is. All educators should have access to vaccination, and those who are unwilling or unable to do so should be tested for some time with public funds. “

Advocates for less coercion

Andrius Navickas, president of the Lithuanian Union of Educators (LŠDPS), commented that the ministry probably does not want to set precise criteria for returning to schools due to the desire not to return to distance education for as long as possible.

“It just came to our attention then. It is understandable that the coronavirus numbers are increasing rapidly, but the overall situation will be monitored and the public response will be evaluated. It will probably be determined by many factors. Basically, no one knows exactly what it will be like here,” he explained.

Mr. Navick also said that he believed unvaccinated teachers should still be able to take the test for free and be able to decide for themselves.

“Probably the less coercion, the more consciously teachers will be vaccinated. Aware of the current figures that there are more than 80% of teachers vaccinated, we believe that those who still have doubts should be listened to. Wait a while,” said the president.

He also assured that most teachers, even at risk of being infected with unvaccinated children, still want to contact education again.

“Of course, there may be some anxiety, but it seems to me that those who have been vaccinated feel safer now. <...>. Everyone should start contact learning now, but inevitably there will be cases where someone needs to isolate themselves or stop contact education and it can become a mixed form of learning, ”explained A. Navickas.

He also emphasized that teachers are strongly opposed to hybrid education and believe that there should be distance or face-to-face education. Call on the unions to strongly oppose this.

“If it is hybrid, then the burden on the teachers will really increase a lot and there is no talk of payment in the government. Unless it is said that the schools must cover it with their own funds, but we really know that they do not have them,” said the union representative.

Feel a severe shortage of teachers

How are schools doing in meeting the Ministry’s safety requirements? Edmundas Grigaliūnas, director of the Vilnius Žirmūnai Gymnasium, commented that one hundred percent not everything will be implemented.

“Because we are a large four-year-old gym and yet we have about 200 kids in a parallel, it’s certainly not possible to do that, as the Operations Manager intends to do in a group of 100 kids. True, as far as possible, we will handle it, we try to deal with it with different schedules.

For example, we have missed the lesson start time and say that our first and second graders will start at eight o’clock and our third and fourth graders will start at eight fifteen. So the breaks do not coincide, the common spaces do not coincide either and it turns out that they do not have contact with other students ”, explained the director.

He did not rule out that there is a fear of having to go back to distance education again if someone gets sick.

“Now we have about 200 students who have said they will take the test. For example, nearly 200 first-year gym students, more than 100 expressed that wish. Our teachers are 100% vaccinated, so there is no problem here and their passports of opportunity are valid. We only have three employees who do these tests, they would not be the teachers, but the cleaner, the other workers, “he said.

On the gym page, you can see that you are looking for three teachers: math, chemistry, and Lithuanian. E. Grigaliūnas feared that these specialists would be impossible to find.

“A math teacher comes to work part-time, I used to reserve it for the teachers and I didn’t even have a choice. The teacher shortage is really great. “

The main reasons for this were that teachers of retirement age could receive compensation if they left the education system, and the second thing was that the older generation of teachers left due to distance education.

“It’s too difficult for them to work remotely, and in the spring we started talking about hybrid training, which also scared me. But in the case of our school, we don’t really have the equipment to deliver hybrid lessons and yet “The ministry is also delayed with acquisitions. On the other hand, two or three problems of this kind would not be solved either,” he assured.

Salaries for all teaching staff must be equal

E. Milešinas recalled that the renewed collective agreement signed in January for education assistance specialists provided for 11 million. EUR.

“As of September 1, the salaries of all pedagogical staff will be the same; the salaries of both teachers and educational support specialists will be the same. It is only necessary to point out that the structure of the educational support staff itself does not it is clear since when and for what reason it was very unbalanced. If the teaching position is 36 hours per week, it was 40 hours for psychologists, so now it will be 36 hours. So are social workers.

Other professionals, such as speech therapists, go from 11:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., depending on the institution, so it has been agreed that the salaries of teachers and, at the same time, of education support professionals will increase during the next four years. Thus, the percentage increase in salary will increase the percentage of non-contact hours, therefore in 2024. the working hours of all pedagogical personnel should be the same: 36 hours. per week. “