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According to the Prime Minister, the epidemiological situation in the municipalities is different, so the Government does not have the possibility to make a decision that is applied equally in all municipalities.
“The government intends to allow municipalities to make their own decisions about the return of grades 5-11 to coeducational education after assessing the epidemiological situation, organizational and logistical resources of a particular municipality, organizing tests of students and community opinion, “said I. Šimonytė Jakilaitienė.
According to the Head of Government, in those municipalities where the epidemiological situation is better, who already has experience in testing students, it may not be very difficult to expand this practice and the Government sees no reason not to allow mixed education in those municipalities .
“However, we do not see the possibility of requiring it, taking into account that some municipalities need a lot of effort for other tests -symptomatic, contact and preventive- and vaccination. We hope that the municipalities make optimal decisions for their specific situation, ”says the comment.
The Lithuanian Municipal Association (LSA) called on Monday not to raise unreasonable expectations in society, and the government plans to return more students to classes.
“We agree that it would be ideal to go back to schools and to the other students: we see and hear all the negative consequences of distance learning for these children and their parents. However, it is not the first month that municipalities have been implementing pandemic management decisions, so no matter how much we want the beautiful aspirations to become reality, we say responsibly in advance that it will be very difficult and sometimes, impossible to get all the children back. to school on the same day or the same week ”- says LSA President Mindaugas Sinkevičius.
Municipal leaders suggested that decisions to return more students to schools should be left to municipalities and school communities to decide when and how to do so. According to the LSA, this would allow to compile realistic graphs based on infection prevalence, testing capacity, and human resources in a particular municipality.
Last week, Prime Minister I. Šimonytė confirmed that the Government should decide this week on the return of students from grades 5 to 11 to school.
Currently, the majority of the country’s primary school children have returned to schools and graduates will return as of May 3. After the announcement of the second quarantine in Lithuania on November 7, most of the students had switched to distance or blended learning.
