This presidential proposal still needs to be approved by the Seimas.
“We will participate very actively so that after three years we do not find ourselves again at the threshold, so to speak, at the problem,” J. Karpavičienė said to LRT radio on Tuesday.
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“It is both our duty and responsibility that the system works. (…) The problems are very clearly identified, the solutions are very clear, we just need to find the mechanism of operation on how these problems could be solved,” she said.
As BNS wrote, in 2022 the Seimas adopted amendments to the Education Act, according to which tenth graders wishing to become eleventh graders should pass the Basic Education Achievement Test (PUPP) with at least a grade of four.
This requirement was supposed to come into effect on September 1, 2026. However, in mid-July, at the initiative of the Social Democrats, the Seimas repealed this requirement, aiming to keep the current system where a student obtains basic education after completing the basic education program and passing the achievement tests.
The president vetoed this decision, proposing to postpone the entry into force of the new threshold until 2029.
Parliamentarians will convene on Tuesday for an extraordinary session to decide on the requirements for tenth-grade students to obtain basic education.
Both the Minister of Education, Science and Sports Raminta Popovienė and the leader of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party faction Orinta Leiputė have told BNS that the political force is inclined to support the president’s veto.
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The Chairwoman of the Seimas Education and Science Committee Jurgita Šukevičienė says that eliminating gaps and helping students prepare for tests will be one of the committee’s priority tasks.
“The role of municipalities is very important, that they participate and cooperate, because the unevenness in the system’s readiness still depends a lot on the location, on the municipality,” the politician emphasized.
“The results of passing the PUPP exam are very uneven: in some municipalities they are quite good, while in others reaching that grade of four is a challenge. So, another aspect is to reduce the unevenness among municipalities,” she said.
In the tenth grade, the achievements in Lithuanian language and mathematics as well as the native language and literature of national minorities in basic education are tested.
PUPP is mandatory for all tenth-grade students, but currently the results do not affect promotion to a higher grade.
