„Here is, I would say, a somewhat inappropriate position of the mayor of Trakai municipality itself and their majority. I would definitely call to reconsider this issue, as it would help both our relations with neighbors and our Lithuanian schools in Poland in arguing the resolution of their problems,“ the politician told journalists on Monday after a meeting with the Minister of Education, Science and Sports in the Seimas.
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According to him, representatives of the national government have failed to reach an agreement with the leaders of Trakai municipality to change their position regarding the two schools with Polish as the language of instruction.
„I think the municipality could solve the school issue, as all legal grounds for that exist,“ stated the head of parliament.
According to him, the issue of reorganizing schools into branches is also raised by representatives of the Polish government.
J. Olek said that the Ministry of Education is preparing proposals that „will contribute to a more general system,“ but did not detail them.
BNS wrote that as early as 2022, the Trakai district municipality made a decision to reorganize the Senieji Trakai Andrzej Stelmachowski Primary School and Paluknia Longin Komolowski Gymnasium into branches, attaching them respectively to Trakai Gymnasium and Lentvaris Henrik Senkevičius Gymnasium.
This caused outrage among the communities of these schools, representatives of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania-Christian Families Alliance, and Polish politicians. They saw discrimination and claimed that children and teachers would suffer inconveniences because of this.
The head of Lithuanian diplomacy, Kęstutis Budrys, has said that this situation harms bilateral relations.
The mayor of Trakai district, Andrius Šatevičius, in turn, said in February that the municipality is under pressure not to comply with laws and to preserve two Polish-language schools. He suggested that the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports take them under its control.
According to the mayor, the decision to turn the mentioned schools into branches was driven by a decreasing number of students, rising maintenance costs of these institutions, and their non-compliance with current legal acts.
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There are 63 schools with Polish as the language of instruction operating in Lithuania.
