News

VILNIUS, June 14. BNS - Lithuania's new law on Education does not discriminate ethnic minorities, on the contrary, it eliminates pre-existing discrimination, the Office of Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson has said following the evaluation of the law stipulating that school-leavers of ethnic minority schools will have to take the same state exam in Lithuanian as students of Lithuanian schools. They will also study Lithuanian according to same teaching program.

"Currently Lithuanian schoolchildren take final Lithuanian mother tongue and Lithuanian state language exams according to different programs, therefore, it could be treated as unequal opportunities for receiving education. The Ministry of Education and Science has taken measures to ensure a final exam in Lithuanian according to one program," Ausrine Burneikiene, Lithuania Equal Opportunities Ombudswoman, said in a letter to MP Jaroslav Narkevic, a member of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania, who had lodged a complaints within the office asking to rule whether the new law did not violate equal opportunities. The ombudswoman said in her letter that the Lithuanian Law on Equal Opportunities had not been breached.

"Measures related to the expansion of teaching of the Lithuanian language in ethnic minority schools will ensure equal opportunities for members of ethnic minorities to receive equal education and will ensure well-rounded and effective equality between members an ethnic minority and the ethnic majority in all economic, social, political and cultural spheres of our life," Burneikiene said.

"In our opinion, the pre-existing legal regulation was discriminatory as all school-leavers should be treated equally no matter what school they had finished," the office's counselor Danguole Grigoloviciene told BNS adding that it wasn't a hasty decision as the government had prepared for it many years. Besides, there's a transitional period set. Moreover, plans to harmonize Lithuanian language teaching programs and exams were mentioned in governmental programs of 2002 and 2004.

The Office of Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson on Monday received another complaint, this time signed by all three MPs representing the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania. The response is still being prepared.

Polish politicians in Lithuania have criticized provisions of the new Law on Education calling them discriminatory. They want Polish children to continue taking an easier exam in Lithuanian and demand a longer transition period. Lithuanian politicians have rejected any criticism paying attention to the fact that ethnic minorities, including the Lithuanian minority, in Poland take the same exam in Polish.

The new education law will also increase the number of school subjects to be taught in Lithuanian in ethnic minority schools.