From the removal of preschoolers to the dismantling of second grades – proposals in the Alytus council

Alytus City Council will vote this Thursday on groups and class sets in educational institutions. At the same time, the restructuring of the network of Alytus educational institutions was restarted and carried out.

When the network overhaul first began in February, the process was halted after protests from parents revealed it was not being carried out according to the rules. The project of network transformation has been re-sent to the educational institutions of Alytus and their opinion is awaited until April 3, at which time other decisions are being made.

However, already this Thursday, the council will decide on group sets, thus the planned network transformation is already underway, only in a different way – by reducing pre-school classes in kindergartens and forming them in schools. The municipality’s goal is to move preschoolers from kindergartens to schools. It is not hidden that it will simply be cheaper for the municipality, because the school children are supported by the Ministry of Education, when at that time kindergartens have to contribute more to the municipality. But at the same time, parents are told that millions are being invested in schools for preschoolers.

One group of pre-school children is also being destroyed in Alytus’ “Obelėlė”, although 37 children are already enrolled in two pre-school classes, and admission to educational institutions has only just begun, so the number of children may still grow.

Leonilė Tretiak’s child should go to Obelėlė, but parents are encouraged to transfer their children to Panemune school. She has talked about her parents’ problems before, now she says that no one listens to her parents.

By the way, according to their parents, the usual tactics of Alytus City Mayor Nerijas Cesiulis are being applied to the parents – the decision is blamed on the ministry, which lowered such a demand, and not the municipality. This was also stated by the mayor in a meeting with the protesting parents and a member of the Social Democratic Council. At that time, the Ministry confirms that decisions regarding educational institutions are a matter of the municipality, in which the Ministry does not interfere.

By the way, when considering kits in the committees, the discussion in the Investment and Budget Committee was not about the welfare of children, but about how to reduce the number of kits.

From the lips of the chairman of the committee, Mindaugas Šima, a social democrat, there were suggestions, for example, to destroy the second class and distribute the children to other classes and schools. This would mean that the children, who have already spent a year in their collectives, would be distributed among different schools. Everything is argued that it would be cheaper.

The head of the education department, Loreta Šernienė, was urged to review the sets of classes, which are slightly smaller than elsewhere, and to look for opportunities to transfer children to other classes or schools.

The head of the education department suggested looking only at the first, fifth and ninth grades, when the children are distributed naturally, but the chairman of the committee thought it was completely normal to break up the second or fifth grade classes and dismantle them, and he strongly suggested that the head of the department look for such opportunities.

Decisions about sets in educational institutions will be made this Thursday at the Alytus City Council meeting.