Figures from the Ministry of Education and Science show that around 327,000 children started the academic year in 2017.
Education and Science Minister Jurgita Petrauskiene told a press conference on Friday that the number of school-leavers has dropped around 7.5% from around 25,500 to 23,600. The number of first-graders has also gone down but not so much – from 30,100 to 29,500.
"The number of first-graders sees the smallest drop, compared to the number of high-graders, which shows that the demographic curve is stable at this stage," the minister told journalists.
The upcoming academic year will be longer by five days, compared to the previous one.
The new academic year will start in 1,115 schools in Lithuania, compared to 1,125 last year. And the number of teachers will remain fairly the same, around 33,000, compared to 33,658 last year.
