Lithuanian Prime Minister suggests abandoning Russian in schools

Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonyte supports the replacement of Russian as a second foreign language in Lithuanian schools with Polish. She shared this in an interview with the Polish radio station Znad Wilii in Vilnius.

“I think we have a certain intoxication with Russian culture in our society. I am not surprised by the reluctance to stage, listen, read or do anything else with it now,” Šimonyte said.

She emphasized that she supports the idea of having Polish as a foreign language in Lithuanian schools as much as possible. According to the minister, it is not difficult to find Polish teachers, as there are Polish schools in Lithuania where teachers can go to work in Lithuanian schools as the number of children decreases.

“I would like children to have a better choice in schools, within our education system the responsible for, than Russian as now it’s the only second foreign language we can teach because we simply don’t have teachers to teach other languages. I would be very much in favor of making Latvian, Polish, as the second foreign language, as accessible as possible,” Šimonyte said.

According to the Lithuanian Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, in the 2022/2023 school year, almost 15,000 sixth-graders chose Russian as a second foreign language.

Lithuanian education leaders have recommended that schools abandon Russian as a second foreign language.

Earlier, Latvia had also planned to abandon Russian as the second foreign language.

Source: The Baltic Times

Photo: esa.int