Education
| Absolute numbers with Polish language education at Lithuanian rural schools (1980) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| District municipality | Lithuanian | Russian | Polish |
| Vilnius / Wilno | 1250 | 4150 | 6400 |
| Šalčininkai / Soleczniki | 500 | 2050 | 3200 |
| Švenčionys / Święciany | 1350 | 600 | 100 |
| Trakai / Troki | 2900 | 50 | 950 |
| Varėna / Orany | 6000 | 0 | 50 |
| Širvintos / Szyrwinty | 2400 | 100 | 100 |
| Absolute number with Polish language education at Lithuanian urban schools was 5 600 | |||
As of 1980, about 20% of Polish-Lithuanian students chose Polish as the language of instruction at school. In the same year, about 60-70% of rural Polish community chose Polish. However, even in towns with predominantly Polish population the share of Polish language education was less than the percentage of Poles. Even though, historically, Poles tended to strongly oppose Russification, one of the most important reasons to choose Russian language education was the absence of Polish language college and university learning in the USSR, and during Soviet times Polish minority students in Lithuania were not allowed to get college/university education across the border in Poland. Only in 2007, the first small branch of the Polish Białystok University opened in Vilnius. In 1980 there were 16,400 school students instructed in Polish. Their number declined to 11,400 in 1990. In independent Lithuania between 1990 and 2001 the number of Polish mother tongue children attending schools with Polish as the language of instruction doubled to over 22,300, then gradually decreased to 18,392 in 2005. In September 2003, there were 75 Polish-language general education schools and 52 which provided education in Polish in combination of languages (for example Lithuanian-Polish, Lithuanian-Russian-Polish). These numbers fell to 49 and 41 in 2011, reflecting a general decline in the number of schools in Lithuania.
Read more about this topic: Poles In Lithuania
Famous quotes containing the word education:
“I would urge that the yeast of education is the idea of excellence, and the idea of excellence comprises as many forms as there are individuals, each of whom develops his own image of excellence. The school must have as one of its principal functions the nurturing of images of excellence.”
—Jerome S. Bruner (20th century)
“... many of the things which we deplore, the prevalence of tuberculosis, the mounting record of crime in certain sections of the country, are not due just to lack of education and to physical differences, but are due in great part to the basic fact of segregation which we have set up in this country and which warps and twists the lives not only of our Negro population, but sometimes of foreign born or even of religious groups.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)
“The legislator should direct his attention above all to the education of youth; for the neglect of education does harm to the constitution. The citizen should be molded to suit the form of government under which he lives. For each government has a peculiar character which originally formed and which continues to preserve it. The character of democracy creates democracy, and the character of oligarchy creates oligarchy.”
—Aristotle (384–323 B.C.)