The billions of euros necessary to pay the striking teachers and revive Lithuanian talents from slumber are urgently shared by Lithuanian generals and others who have access to the inflated national defense golden spoon distribution cauldron

"While several thousand teachers, who have let their students roam the fields, are on strike and are naming their demands through the lips of trade union leaders, politicians who have become the "horses" of polemics are pointing fingers at each other, looking for the ones to blame for the situation. But almost everyone forgets to look in the mirror - a stone can be thrown at everyone the garden of the parties that were in power, because there was no fundamental reform of the education system, teachers were only fed promises of a bright future for years.

 

The initial demands of the trade union of Lithuanian education workers, which announced the strike, were quite impressive: to increase salaries by 56%, to reduce contact hours from 24 to 18. Among other things, they also demanded a reduction in the number of students in classes.

 

Yesterday, Gintautas Jakštas, the Minister of Education, Science and Sports, said after the negotiations that now the trade union has changed the demand for a 56% wage increase to a 46% indicator, and the proposal to reduce the workload from 24 to 20.

 

However, according to him, a comprehensive approach was never received from the trade union. Negotiations are scheduled to continue today. Only the minister warns: there is no way to satisfy all demands.

 

Illustration in numbers: next year's budget should provide 1 billion EUR funds. Also, next year, additional 6,000 teachers, 2 billion EUR for the construction of schools: because, reducing classes, it is necessary to expand school premises or build new ones.

 

Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė reminds that education already has a privileged position in the country's budgets.

 

"And it must be said very frankly that this is happening at the expense of other sectors. Then social security or health simply suffer, which bear a proportionally higher burden of education funding being in line with the European Union average. This means that according to our capabilities, according to our budget, according to the amount of taxes we agree to pay, we allocate a proportionally larger part to education," she told LRT radio on Tuesday, adding: "I always understand that there is a desire for more, better, stronger , but there is never an answer at whose expense."

 

According to the Prime Minister, during the term of this Government, the wage fund, after estimating 2024 plan, will increase by 80%. "This is a huge amount of money, which will be used specifically for the additional payment of pedagogues, scientists and teachers," said the Prime Minister.

 

The government proposes to raise salaries for teachers next year in two stages: from January - 10%, and from September - until the average salary of a teacher reaches 130% of the national average salary.

 

Politicians of all shades rushed to take advantage of the teachers' strike as a trump card in the run-up to the elections. Unsurprisingly, the loudest voices of displeasure come from the opposition parties. Here, for example, is the "discovery" of Artūras Paulauskas, chairman of the "Freedom and Justice" party: "There is a shortage of teachers, the workload is enormous, young people do not choose the teaching profession not only because of low salaries, but also because of the complete chaos created by the Government itself with its "eternal reforms ".

 

Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, the chairperson of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party, is not far behind, calling the trade union's demands to the Government normal. Because she thinks, "this government is not implementing its government program, where it had set a noble mission - to create such educational conditions in the field of education, so that quality education is available to everyone. In fact, education union members reiterated that until they said that a strike would be a last resort because there was no dialogue, no agreement, no pay, no teachers, no classes, they were simply not heard." Such concern was expressed by a long-time member of the European Parliament.

 

After the start of the teachers' strike, the Seimas Democratic faction "On behalf of Lietuvos" registered a draft resolution, the authors of which call for an urgent agreement on the implementation of, according to them, the legitimate and reasonable demands of the striking education workers and to prepare a resource-based implementation plan. The authors of the resolution include former prime ministers Saulius Skvernelis, Algirdas Butkevičius, etc.

 

Without questioning the validity of the educators' demands or the conventional arithmetic, several questions arise. First of all, have all those critics, now suddenly "understanding", "hearing" and "supporting" educators, at least looked in the mirror? That is, did the ruling social democrats, "peasants" and all kinds of "freedom/justice" representatives, and the conservatives themselves, do anything to advance the education reform at least a little? It's cheap now just to cheat and grab cheap election points.

 

There were many languages and visions in a dozen years, and the education system continued to languish. Apparently, it is such a simple truth that many things start from the school desk, i.e.  from an educated citizen, was bypassed. The attractiveness of the teaching profession is getting less strong. Well, this was largely determined by the government's attitude towards this truly prestigious profession.

 

One of the three ideas of the "Idea Lietuvai" initiative announced by the media and state leaders 5 years ago was as follows: the teaching profession by 2025. must become prestigious. But it remained a slogan: both in large cities and in the regions there is a struggle for teachers, who are in short supply.

 

Raimundas Kuodis, economist, then deputy chairman of the board of the Bank of Lithuania, explained some time ago: "We have to admit that for more than 10 years the funding of the education system has not been adequate. This led to the fact that the best students were not chosen to teach. In the same Finland, South Korea, and other countries, people who graduated from general universities and graduated from them well become teachers. The most talented students from universities go to become teachers (...) However, there is a perfect Lithuanian way of training teachers: people who do not enter prestigious specialties, then go to a pedagogical university." According to the economist, "they teach our children for a salary, which is often lower than average wages". He reminds: according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a teacher should earn 30-50% more than the national average.

 

This would be an incentive for those who studied well in general universities to choose teaching.

 

Looking at the salary dynamics of employees of educational institutions since 2008, it can be seen that the average gross salary of teachers and the Lithuanian average went almost hand in hand - it is true, at the beginning of that year it was even lower and reached EUR 609. Later, it rose by ten or several tens of euros, but it did not escape far from the national average. In the second quarter of this year, the average gross salary of teachers was EUR 2,210, the national average was EUR 2,000.

 

Will significantly increasing teachers' salaries make their profession more prestigious? Will it attract talented university graduates to schools? It may be so, at least it is clear that receiving an adequate salary can make a person feel a lot more dignified, realizing that his hard work is really appreciated.

 

A lot of money is needed for much higher salaries, but where to get it from, none of the critic groups really take the initiative to advise. Just like if you stir the pot, you won't multiply its contents. Redistribute the cake - take from some and give to others? Raise taxes? Still more borrowing? Such proposals would probably be tantamount to shooting yourself in the foot, especially as the elections are approaching. So it remains only to criticize. Without seeing a log in own eye.

 

For now, one thing is clear - we have something that has been brewing for a very long time. In VŽ's opinion, all parties should take the blame for this, especially those who, after sitting in the seats of power, found rather full pockets of government money and scooped them up with generous handfuls. More often - for themselves.

 

The promised education reforms have not been matured by any politicians, so the bubbles of the burst bubble of empty promises are now floating in the empty classrooms left by striking teachers."

 1. A good example is the story of the army commander.