How does the current situation of Polish education looks like in the Vilnius district?
Number of students, and what is more important, number of Polish first grade pupils is stable.

Teaching of all subjects, from first to twelfth grade, is conducted in Polish. We are proud that this educational model guarantees high level of education without taking time for understanding particular subjects in the state language.

Topped with success are efforts to keep permanent teaching staff coming from Polish families, graduates of Polish schools, who know Polish traditions, what affects all extracurricular activities and education in the spirit of local traditions, Christian values, patriotism and citizenship. We have folk dance and song groups as well as theaters at schools.

Does the native Polish language exam is on the list of exams passed during graduation?
We continue passing graduation exam in Polish as a native language despite the fact that authorities crossed it out from the list of obligatory exams. We also keep an appropriate number of the Polish language lessons.

Polish school is competitive - our graduates raise the indicator of entering higher education. Today it is around 62 percent.

We strive for schools to be as close as possible to students and we make various conditions for our kids to receive secondary education. We are proud that already 21 schools in the Vilnius district have received the gymnasium status.

Vilnius district municipality pays a lot of attention on renovating existing and constructing new institutions...
Renovating and building new institutions, adding new methodological materials make institutions of the Vilnius district competitive with Lithuanian ones.

It is not a surprise, as education was and still is one of the main priorities of the Vilnius district municipality. Most important goals are maintaining existing network of schools in the district while keeping availability and quality of learning.

In 5 recent years, 5 new preschools were built in the Vilnius district: in Lavoriškės, Rudamina, Nemenčinė, Mickūnai, Avižieniai. A new preschool is to open its doors in Sudervė still this year.

According to educational program 2014/2015 of preschools, 2098 children attended preschools in the Vilnius district. 1155 of them attended Polish groups, which is 55,05%, 905 (43,14%) – Lithuanian groups, and 38 (1,81%) – Russian groups. In order to satisfy citizens' requirements, new groups of preschools and early primaries were established. 589 children attended early primaries groups (55 groups); 305 (51,78%) of them went to Polish ones, 265 (44,99%) - to Lithuanian groups, and 19 (3,2%) to Russian.

Interestingly, the number of kids in preschools increased from 1 to 2 thousand in the last 20 years.

The economic situation in Lithuania is not in great shape and not every family is able to send their children to preschools or even schools...

The fees for attending preschools are the lowest in the Vilnius district. They are almost 50 percent lower than, for example, in Vilnius. The price for attending a preschool is 34 euros in the Vilnius district, while in the capital it amounts to 63 euros.

The Vilnius district municipiality covers 30% of expenses designated for catering of every child in preschools and early primaries regardless of its social situation. Furthermore, additional reliefs are applied - from 50 to 100 percent for keeping a child.

It is important that the number of educational institutions in the Vilnius district has not changed. The municipiality cares not only for keeping the same number of institutions, but also establishes new ones. Currently, the network of educational sites in the Vilnius district includes 45 schools, from which 36 are with the Polish teaching language (21 gymnasiums, in 18 of them children study in Polish).

Not all secondary schools in the district received accreditation?

As a result of protests of educational communities and actions of the Member of the European Parliament Valdemar Tomaševski, other deputies, EAPL councillors, and Forum of the Parents of Polish Schools in Lithuania, the Government issued amendments to the Law on Education to the Seimas, which would extend the process of secondary schools accreditation to 2 years, until 1st September 2017. Adopted amendments gave a chance for 3 secondary schools in the district, the only ones which did not receive accreditation.

As I said earlier, we are glad to announce that the number of first grade pupils in the schools of the Vilnius distrct is stable. There are approximately 370 children starting theirs education every year.

In comparison with the best period, i.e. 1997-1998, due to demographic decline there are less children now, as there were as much as 612-720 first grade pupils in 1997-1998, what makes 50-51% of all the students of the district). All in all, it is worth to say that from 5 children from Polish families 4 go to Polish schools.

In academic year 2014/15, there were 7615 students in general. 4118 (54,1%) of them went to Polish schools, 3212 (42,2%) - to Lithuanian schools, and 285 (3,7%) - to Russian.

In 2015/16 there are 8435 students. 4706 of them go to Polish schools, 3391 - to Lithuanian, and 338 - to Russian.

How does the municipality invest in education?
There are large investments made for the realization of projects in educational branch. In the last 6 years 22,47 million euros were allocated for the improvement of the educational services quality in the Vilnius district. 8 millions come from the municipal budget, 5,06 million euros – from the European funds, 3,5 million euros - from the state funds and 2,05 million euros come from the state funds, municipal and European funds, and from the Association 'Polish Community'.

The Vilnius district is one of the leaders among all 60 districts in the ranking of municipalities of 2015. Even 43,3% of educational institutions were renovated last year. This indicator is even better in the district than in the capital. Schools were renovated, equipped with computer equipment and innovative teaching aids.

The municipality allocates over 579 000 euros for children transfer to schools every year. It owns 18 school buses, 11 them are 'yellow'. Recently, the municipality bought 5 additional school buses. We are also grateful for the support of the Polish Government. As you may know, recently the Polish Government allocated money for the purchase of buses for 4 schools in the Vilnius district (Kalveliai, Kiviškės, Medininkai, and Paberžė).

Moreover, we offer the lowest fees in Lithuania for attending the Musical School and the School of Fine Arts. Sports School is free. The monthly fee for the Musical School in Nemenčinė is 7,25 euros. The same price is for the Musical School in Pagiriai and the School of Fine Arts in Rudamina. The municipality allocates about 0,7 mln euros for the extracurricular education each year.

A new program (so called 'informal' teaching) regarding the extracurricular education of children has been launched this year. 15 euros per 1 child were assigned from the state budget for its realization. Due to this program, additional classes (sports, choreography, foreign languages, etc.) will be conducted in 11 educational institutions.

The mucinipality assigns about 29 000 euros for summer camps every year. Youth and children from the Vilnius district participate in various kinds of school and after-school activities.

Are students of the Vilnius district showing good results in national arena?
We are proud that Polish schools offer high level education. It is evident even at looking at the exam results of Mariuš Voitkun from Rudamina Ferdinando Ruščico gymnasium, who scored 100 points in 5 exams in 2013 and became one of the best four graduates in Lithuania. It has to be noted, that the results of state's graduation exams of the district students are often better than the results of the students of the state.

Despite many problems we try not to let down the trust of parents who let their children to Polish schools. We want to prove that Polish schools have the right to exist by showing high level of education, great results of state exams, active participation in olympiads and competitions.

Thank you for the conversation.

"This project is co-financed from the funds granted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland."