According to him, it is necessary to review the real situation, how many places in shelters educational institutions actually have.
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„I ask, on behalf of school principals, to oblige civil defense officials in Lithuania to review the numbers, because the numbers of shelters… Schools often lack space to accommodate students themselves, and they are also obliged to accept someone from the street. You know, frankly – it’s a bit of a mess,” D. Žvirdauskas said on Friday during a meeting of the Seimas Education and Science Committee.
Lina Bagdanavičienė, head of the Lithuanian Association of Preschool Education Institutions, in turn, stated that some kindergartens do not have any premises where they should hide in case of an air alarm.
„To say today that we know what to do, that is certainly not the case. Some institutions do not have a place to take those children,” she said.
According to the head of the association, quickly taking preschoolers to a shelter elsewhere is a big challenge.
She emphasized that the basements of the institutions themselves, if they have them, are often unkempt and not adapted for toddlers to be safer.
„We need to pay attention at the national level and help municipalities solve these problems so that basements are properly equipped for small children with facilities, with sanitary units, with water, entrances, and air access. This is a huge challenge,” she said.
According to Jonas Petkevičius, Deputy Minister of Education, Science and Sport, 81 percent of educational institutions have easily accessible shelters.
According to him, 48 percent of institutions have equipped shelters, 21 percent of institutions’ staff and pupils need to walk up to 150 meters to the shelter, 12 percent – 150–300 meters, 19 percent do not have shelters at such a distance.
„This does not mean that those schools do not have a place where they could take children in case of a crisis, a drone attack, or another danger,” the deputy minister asserted.
On the other hand, he admitted that although some educational institutions have their own shelters, they cannot accommodate all people.
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In total, 612.5 thousand people work and are educated in schools, kindergartens, and other educational institutions, while the capacity of shelters reaches 246 thousand people.
„We see that the capacity is insufficient in 448 institutions, but in such a case, municipalities and schools need to decide where to protect those children,” said J. Petkevičius.
However, he hoped that these figures do not reflect the real situation, as some institutions declared having shelters but did not specify their capacity.
The deputy minister stated on Friday during the committee meeting that the heads and staff of educational institutions are informed on how to act in emergency situations, but not in all cases was it possible to react appropriately.
„The drone incident showed that recommendations on how to act in a crisis did not fully work in schools. Algorithms were prepared and distributed, but there is a lack of exercises. This is a crucial point,” the official said.
On the other hand, according to him, in the event of another crisis situation, the reaction would already be better.
„I can assure you that institutions currently know how to act, institutions will certainly – it has been emphasized several times – not call parents to pick up children, and there will be no such chaos,” the deputy minister assured on Friday during the committee meeting.
As BNS wrote, in mid-May, an air alert was declared twice in parts of Lithuania due to drones possibly violating airspace and the threat of an air attack.
After the instructions to go to shelters were canceled, reports appeared in the public space that some schools led students to the stadium during the air alert or told them to finish writing a test.
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