A Lithuanian secondary school in Pelesa, Belarus, has been forced to suspend its activities after inspectors of the Belarusian Fire Supervision Service detected alleged violations.
According to the information available to the Lithuanian Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, the inspectors visited the school on Thursday.
“We have been notified that inspectors of the Fire Supervision Service came yesterday and recorded potential violations at the Pelesa secondary school. It was proposed to suspend the school’s activities until the elimination of the deficiencies registered. We’d like to point out that no such deficiencies were found during previous such checks,” the ministry reported on Friday.
The school director would undertake to address the deficiencies, it said.
Children attending Lithuanian schools in Belarus, which are situated in Pelesa and Rimdziuny, will no longer be taught in Lithuanian from September due to the Education Code amendments adopted in Belarus.
Four ethnic minority schools – two Polish and two Lithuanian schools – have functioned in the neighbouring country until now.
The Pelesa secondary school, which opened in 1992, was built using Lithuanian funds. Since then, it has been funded by the Lithuanian Ministry of Education, Science and Sport.
According to the ministry, Vilnius sought to keep Lithuanian as the teaching language at the Pelesa school yet Belarus firmly followed the principle of its new Education Code that all instruction in the country’s schools must be in Russian or Belarusian as of September.
Children attending the Pelesa school would be taught in Russian from the beginning of the next school year, the ministry said adding that the Lithuanian language could only be used as the language of instruction during Lithuanian language and literature classes.
After-school activities could also be held in Lithuania, while the school would continue to employ Lithuanian teachers.
Meanwhile, the Rimdziuny school, which was built in 1996 on Lithuanian funds, now gets funding from Belarus, and will use the Belarusian language as its teaching language from September.
Lithuania’s Foreign Ministry expressed strong protest over Belarus’ actions, which “violate bilateral agreements and restrict the right of Belarusians of Lithuanian descent to receive education in their mother tongue”. Vilnius has already raised this issue at the UN Human Rights Council and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Despite all efforts, Belarus had rejected all proposals, the ministry stated.
Until now, the Pelesa school had 127 pupils taught in the Lithuanian language, and 23 teachers, including 11 Lithuanian citizens. The Rimdziuny school had 82 pupils and 18 teachers, including 14 Lithuanian citizens.
Lithuania hands in note to Belarus over suspended operation of Lithuanian school
Later on Friday, Lithuania's Foreign Ministry protested against the suspension of operation of a Lithuanian school in Belarus.
The ministry says it has sent an official diplomatic note to the Belarusian Embassy in Vilnius, expressing "protest against the actions of the Belarusian institutions, aimed at closing the Pelesa secondary school funded by the State of Lithuania".
"These actions are a continuation of the Belarusian government's intention to eliminate Lithuanian-language education in Belarus and violate bilateral agreements between Lithuania and Belarus and international conventions that establish the right of representatives of national minorities to learn in their mother tongue," the Foreign Ministry said.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
