LITHUANIAN, POLISH EXPERTS AGREE THAT STATE LANGUAGE EXAM WILL BE UNIFIED, EVALUATION WILL DIFFER (BNS, 20 September 2011)
Atnaujinta 2011-09-21
VILNIUS, Sep 20, BNS – A Lithuanian–Polish expert group on education issues agreed late on Monday in Warsaw that the form of the state language exam for all Lithuanian schoolchildren will be unified but the evaluation will differ for Lithuanian and ethnic minority schools.
According to the concluding statement, the copy of which was received by BNS, following the second meeting of education experts and ethnic minority representatives, the implementation of the new Lithuanian Law on Education does not mean sudden unification of the state language exam.
"The form of the exam will be one – an essay – and the evaluation norms will differ during the transition period. Taking into account different views on the contents of the exam, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania will meet with representatives of Lithuanian schools where the teaching process takes place in Polish to professionally discuss the issue," the statement reads.
The experts also agreed to include representatives of Lithuanian ethnic minorities into the exam evaluation committee of the National Examination Center.
"The evaluation committee would analyze results of annual final exams organized by the National Examination Center for at least 8 years and based on them it would present proposals on the improvement of evaluation norms," the Lithuanian and Polish specialists concluded.
The experts also discussed the education situation of the Polish minority in Lithuania.
The next meeting is scheduled for October 14 in Vilnius.
Lithuanian and Polish Prime Ministers Andrius Kubilius and Donald Tusk agreed to set up the inter-state working group on education during their meeting in the Lithuanian southern town of Druskininkai on September 4.
Polish politicians in Lithuania and Poland have criticized the new Law on Education expanding the use of the state Lithuanian language in ethnic minority schools despite Lithuanians living in Poland saying that even after the adoption of the law Poles in Lithuania will have better education conditions then they have in Poland.
