The new Government claims that the "Millennium" gymnasiums included in its program can create more opportunities for the children of the regions. The representatives of the opposition warn that if the potential is concentrated in a group of individual schools, the social exclusion will only increase.
"Millennium" gymnasiums are described in the Government's program as schools of a new generation, which would reduce the gap in educational results between city and district schools.
According to the program, teachers who demonstrate the highest educational results, the most talented graduates of pedagogical studies will be invited to work in these schools, there will be all the necessary modern infrastructure, STEAM laboratories.
Minister: it would be an opportunity for the children of the regions
The Minister of Education Jurgita Šiugždinienė says that such schools in remote municipalities would be "catalysts of change", children from the whole region could come to them to do laboratory work and participate in non-formal education.
The "Millennium" gymnasium program is designed to create catalysts for change in districts, villages, and remote municipalities, that is, schools that have all the necessary infrastructure to carry out the same laboratory, non-formal education," the minister told BNS.
According to her, for schoolchildren who live in remote municipalities, such schools would bring the infrastructure, now available only to children in big cities, closer.
The minister said that she could not yet say how many such gymnasiums would be established and in which regions. According to her, these matters will be defined in the measures plan of the Government program, which is still being prepared.
"The government program is not a plan of measures, we are currently starting to prepare a plan and will put together the details of what it should look like," said J. Šiugždinienė.
The opposition sees the threat of greater separation
Representatives of the opposition evaluate the proposed concept of the "Millennium" gymnasium with caution, seeing the threat of even greater social exclusion.
According to Eugenijus Jovaišas, the "peasant" head of the Seimas Education and Science Committee of the previous term, they want to make the "Millennium" gymnasiums elite, which will further increase the separation.
"Gymnasiums have already been established in the provinces, but here we want to concentrate the best children, the best equipment in the gymnasium, why is such elitism necessary?" E. Jovaiša told BNS.
"A lot of research has been done in the world that such elite schools do not work, and in this way the most beautiful minds from everywhere will be sucked into one gymnasium, instead of being distributed normally to all schools, and where the resources have been accumulated to only one school," said the academician.
According to E. Jovaiša, in order to achieve the quality of education, good teachers are first of all needed, and they are available in both metropolitan and regional schools.
"You need to have good teachers, a good teacher is in Vilnius, Telšiai, and Panevėžy (there is a good teacher). The example of a good teacher reveals itself very well when it comes to analyzing the achievements of high school graduates. You look at the distribution, centurions are everywhere. There are good teachers everywhere, the only solution is to raise the qualifications of teachers and raise the desire of students to learn or, mandarins in other words, motivation", said E. Jovaiša.
Education expert prof., who was elected to the Seimas with the Social Democrats. Vilija Targamadzė says that the idea of "Millennium" gymnasiums, if not implemented properly, can increase segregation.
"Now it is not clear how those schools will be founded, there is an option that they will concentrate the best potential, then other schools will not have such potential and elitism will appear and social exclusion will increase. But there may be investments and trained specialists, schools. which will function as quality centers, everything will depend on the implementation", V. Targamadze told BNS.
The minister emphasizes: there would be no school selection
Minister J. Šiugždinienė asserts that fears about elitism are unfounded, because the "Millennium" gymnasium does not carry out the selection of students, and its infrastructure can be used by students from all regional schools, who come in classes to do laboratory work.
"The principle is that this is not a selective school. "Millennium" high school could become an existing school in the district, classes from other schools can be brought to that school. It won't be a school where there will be some kind of selection and parents will compete to be able to send their child, it's just that every child in the district will have the opportunity to do a physics laboratory in a physics laboratory, instead of reading from books," said J. Šiugždinienė.
"I think it's a big injustice that children who live outside big cities don't have such opportunities. As a mother, it seems to me that this is a great injustice (to regional families), so I want the child, who does not necessarily study in that gymnasium, to be able to come to that school with the class, to be able to come to certain circles of informal education," said the conservative.
According to her, it is not yet clear how many such schools could be created in the country, "the more, the better", and the aspiration is for all gymnasiums in the country to be "Millennium".
"We'd like to see them all be Millennium High Schools, but it's all about the funds and stuff, but why can't we just snowball to get those opportunities out there." There are so many gifted children, but we just don't find them because they don't have these conditions. It's very strange to me when people talk about elitism, it seems to me that it's just the opposite, today we don't provide opportunities for our children who live outside big cities to get quality education", said J. Šiugždinienė.
Vytautas Mitalas, a representative of the ruling coalition's partner Freedom Party, says that the specific implementation model of the "Millennium" gymnasium proposed by the conservatives must be discussed in detail.
"I expect the minister to have a detailed discussion on this silence when preparing the plan of measures, because the operational model, principles and financing of these schools have not been detailed yet," V. Mitala told BNS.
New generation school
The government program states that "Millennium" high school is a new generation school.
"These gymnasiums will be aimed at reducing the gap in educational outcomes between city and district schools, with the aim of ensuring that children have all the opportunities to receive quality, modern education," the program says.
In those districts where gymnasiums of a similar type already operate, it is planned to strengthen them and improve the infrastructure, where there are no such opportunities - to establish new ones.
"We will set the goal for these gymnasiums to become generators and catalysts of pedagogical changes in the districts. The infrastructure, non-formal activities and other services of these schools will be available to all students of the district, and the mentoring center will be used by pedagogues of surrounding schools and students intending to become teachers," the program reads.
The author is Milena Andrukaitytė
