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According to data from the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports, in 2021, 1475 teachers intend to leave the teaching job, which is why many requests for severance pay have been received. By comparison, last year the ministry received around 1,300 such requests.
The situation becomes critical
Members of the Seimas also raise questions about keeping teachers in the workplace. Some suggest creating teacher retention programs, others increase teacher earnings.
“Maybe I shouldn’t run a save program? Looking at the numbers, the situation is getting interesting, we plan to hire about 300 assistant teachers this year. There will be another 1,000 of those assistants in four years. Where can we get them if not them? We save? ”- Conservative Edmundas Pupinis asked the Seimas Education and Science Committee on Wednesday.
Municipalities also support this. Jonas Mickus, representative of the Lithuanian Municipal Association (LSA), says that the situation of teachers is approaching a critical threshold, so it is necessary to create a mechanism to attract young teachers.
“The LSA proposed to the government to include a teacher attraction program in the program. It would provide mechanisms to encourage young teachers to come to school, how to return teachers who are of working age to school. I think the state should go down that path now. We all know that the situation with the teachers is approaching a critical situation.
If we leave a person who because of his age cannot work, his work is no longer of high quality, we will continue to ask him to stay at work … If a teacher falls asleep during a lesson in elementary school. Could it be a quality education? ”- pointed out J. Mickus.
Scholarships alone are not enough
To encourage young people to choose pedagogical studies, the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports (ŠMSM) awards them 300 scholarships. But parliamentarians criticize that this is not enough.
“If we had an education policy and examined it systematically, I don’t think there would be ad hoc training for educators and education support professionals. That € 300 scholarship, you don’t think everyone is going to go to schools, they don’t have the obligation to come to schools.
This means that teacher training, retraining and development programs must be reviewed very well, ”said Vilija Targamadze, a member of the Seimas and a Social Democrat.
Beata Petkevič, a member of the Seimas and a member of the Lithuanian Regional Faction, also supported her in financial matters. The MP notes that some teachers may have been intimidated or exhausted by distance learning in schools in 2020-2021.
“Teachers who are of legal age have found it difficult to teach children. And now they have such a sense of uncertainty, as the sciences will take place next year. They may want to leave the teaching profession of their own free will.
In this sense, I think the only solution would be to raise teachers’ salaries. Because there is definitely one of the most important reasons why teachers no longer want to go back and teach co-ed or otherwise, because they lack constructive dialogue, it is really difficult, ”noted B. Petkevič.
The Deputy Minister of Education and Science, Ramūnas Skaudžius, responded by assuring that the issue of teachers’ salaries was already foreseen in the Government’s work plan.
“As for salaries, the salary increase foreseen in the Government’s action plan is included not only for teachers, but also for managers and specialists in support of education. This is planned, work is being done on it and salaries will be raised, ”said the vice minister.
ŠMSM has set a goal for the average teacher salary to reach 130% by 2024. National Median Income (VMU). Currently, VMU in Lithuania reaches 967.3 euros “in the hands”, which means that the average salary of a teacher should reach at least 1257.49 euros.
At that time, the position of the Ministry on the issue of distance education is strict: it is preparing to start the new school year by contact.
“The common goal of all of us is that all children return to school from September to have as much contact as possible with teaching. We will not avoid situations, the virus is not defeated, vaccination rates are slowing, there may be outbreaks, and you may need to switch to distance learning.
But we hope that they are only fragments of distance education, so that as many children as possible learn through contact, ”said the deputy minister.
Hundreds of professionals are missing
A study by researchers from Vytautas Magnus University showed that there is currently a shortage of more than 350 teachers of compulsory subjects and 504 specialists in pedagogical assistance in Lithuania, and after 3-5 years, if no additional measures are taken, the need will be increase 5 times.
According to a study carried out by the Organization for European Cooperation and Development, the average age of Lithuanian teachers, which is 50 years, is higher than in other OECD countries (44 years). Also, 57 percent. teachers in Lithuania are 50 years or older (OECD average: 34%).
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