The Ministry proposes to create separate classes for athletes: it will not be easy

At first glance, the school shown in the LNK “Vidurdienio žinios” report, Oz Gymnasium, looks like other general education schools in Lithuania. But don’t be fooled, this school is specialized, and there are plenty of clues as to what makes it special. The adjacent maple alley also tells about the most famous athletes who graduated from this school.

Vilnius Oz Gymnasium is one of the three specialized gymnasiums for sports education, which educates famous Lithuanian athletes remotely and daily. Basketball player Renaldas Seibutis, football player Deividas Šemberas, rower and kayaker Alvydas Duonėla, basketball players Jurgita Štreimikytė and Agnė Abromaitė-Čiūdarienė, and wrestler Mindaugas Mizgaitis studied here.

In the gymnasium, there are two training sessions per day for sports class students – morning and evening. Classes are also held there in the morning and in the afternoon.

“Today is Wednesday. Today, our athletes do not have morning training. That’s why they are in classes, and the gym is empty at the moment,” explained Vilda Skairienė, the deputy director of Oz gymnasium for education.

Students study until 10:30 a.m. every day. After that, they go to various bases where their training takes place. After that, they return to the gymnasium, have lunch, and then have classes again. In the evening, around 4:30 p.m. , they are off to their training bases again.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Sports proposes to establish separate classes in order to create more convenient learning opportunities for athletes in every Lithuanian school.

“This is one of the measures to encourage the development of sports training not only in the three sports gymnasiums currently operating in Lithuania, which are located in Vilnius, Šiauliai and Panevėžys, so that this will provide an opportunity for the development of sports in other Lithuanian cities as well,” said Vice Minister Aistė Zedelytė-Kaminskė.

The procedure for how those classes would work in the general education system will be determined by the Minister of Education, Science and Sports after the amendments to the Law on Sports are adopted.

“We believe that they could work on the principle of cooperation. The need should also come from the sports federation itself, as the school should ensure an appropriate lesson schedule and have infrastructure. The sports federation itself or the school could act with concentrated forces on the principle of such cooperation, and gather, for example, a team sport, such as basketball, in one class, where they could do sports exercises in the morning, and at other times be educated in schools” – said A. Zedelytė- Kaminske.

Children are educated on a similar principle in current sports gymnasiums. Only there is additionally provided accommodation for children.

“Here, the children would return home after training,” said A. Zedelytė-Kaminskė.

Oz Grammar School’s Deputy Principal for Education has no doubt that mainstream schools that create such classes will face many challenges.

“First of all, it is the organization of work, with the organization of the educational process of students during field trips,” V. Skairienė said.

Oz Gymnasium has been educating students remotely for 23 years.

“Our students, who go to sports camps or long-term training sessions, study remotely,” said V. Skairienė.

At the same time, she noted that sports education is very complicated. This requires teachers to teach special education subjects. There are three of them: sport, sport knowledge and sport and health.

“It is very difficult to find sports bases, unless those schools have created their own excellent infrastructure. Our school rents about 19 infrastructure sports facilities”, said V. Skairienė.

According to the deputy director for education, all kinds of training of athletes is also important.

“This is both physical and psychological preparation. Therefore, specialists are needed who would constantly evaluate and test the sports abilities and achievements of the students, as well as their sports preparation”, stated V. Skairienė.