Valdemar Tomaševski: statement of D. Pavalkis is a personal political gambit

2013-10-22, 23:52

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On Monday 21st October, Minister of Education and Science Dainius Pavalkis announced that graduates of schools (both with the Lithuanian teaching language and national minorities' schools) will take the unified matriculation exam of the Lithuanian language and literature. He declared it to journalists after leaving the office of the speaker of the Seimas Loreta Graužinienė. 'This is a personal political gambit of the minister,' this is how Valdemar Tomaševski, leader of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania (EAPL), Member of the European Parliament comments on a statement of the head of education resort.

The EAPL leader notes that in its ruling the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania clearly indicated the necessity to abide the transition period in case of changes in educational system and explained clearly the case concerning the unification of matriculation exam of Lithuanian language and literature.
'After the court ruling, the legal situation is clear and unequivocal. In its ruling the court underlines that schools of national minorities should ensure that students acquire the adequate knowledge of state language. However the court indicated that in case of changes in educational system, new rules should be introduced step by step to allow both students and teachers prepare properly. This record is aimed to eliminate the possibility of inequality, and this inequality took place in schools with the Polish, Russian and Belarusian teaching languages, the students of which had about 800 lessons of the Lithuanian language less than their peers in schools with the state language. Thus these changes should be introduced after at least 8 years of the transitional period - or even 12 years, it is after the elimination of differences in schools' curricula and number of hours,' said Valdemar Tomaševski in his conversation with L24.lt
The EAPL leader pointed out that in view of that ruling the statement of the Minister is rather a political gambit.
'On Monday D. Pavalkis got back to this subject. I think that this is rather a political gambit. Last week there was much talk about possible resignations of ministers from Labour Party. These are internal party affairs, in which we do not interfere, but it is easy to notice the minister's political gambit which purpose is to divert attention from these matters and guide it towards other issues. In case of political problems and tensions attempts are made to draw attention to national minorities. It is an old and quite primitive but effective tactic in our country,' noted V. Tomaševski when commenting on the existing situation.
As it turned out, the EAPL leader Valdemar Tomaševski was right about Minister D. Pavalkis' statement, as later the speaker of the Seimas L. Graužinienė said that this subject was not even discussed during her meeting with the Minister.

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