I. Šimonytė: the Minister of Education came with a resignation letter

We will talk regarding the future later

According to the Prime Minister, G. Jakštas came to her with a resignation letter.

“The Minister of Education may not have mentioned it on Friday, but he came to me at eight o’clock with a resignation request. I want to say that the minister really has enough sense to appreciate that the situation that has arisen with interim settlements is not very pleasant”, I.Šimonytė told journalists on Monday.

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The Prime Minister said that the question of the future of G. Jakšto’s work will be returned to in the future, looking at how the situation of interim settlements will be resolved.

“Now, no new minister who has come and sat in the minister’s chair will be able to deal with this situation soon, (…) we agreed that now the minister and his team are doing just that, and we will return to all discussions regarding resignations when everything is resolved.” – said I.Šimonytė.

It will largely depend on how the minister manages to control this situation, and I hope he will.

When asked if the issue of the minister’s future will be returned to in September, she said that “maybe sooner”.

“To a large extent, it will depend on how the minister manages to control this situation, and I hope that he will,” asserted I.Šimonytė.

According to the prime minister, she had a long discussion with the minister regarding the implementation of interim settlements, “are we ready and can we go to this experiment”.

Lukas Balandis/BNS photo/Ingrida Šimonytė

“Because we ourselves understood that this is the first time and there can be all kinds of surprises,” said I.Šimonytė.

According to the head of the government, it was clear from the beginning that students who were not satisfied with the results of the settlements would be able to retake them, during the interim inspections it became obvious that “the situation turned out to be more complicated than expected”.

“After looking at those tasks, it really sometimes seems that people who are professionals, experts, who are given an order to prepare a task, for some reason seem that the purpose of the task is to make it as difficult as possible for the students”, said I.Šimonytė.

“I don’t really understand that,” she added.

According to I.Šimonytė, first of all, it is necessary not to disappoint those students who performed well during the interim assessments, so there are no plans to stop these inspections.

“The interests of those children who performed worse will also be taken into account, as it was planned from the beginning,” said the Prime Minister.

Minister: and who will solve the problems?

The minister told reporters at a press conference on Friday that he had considered the possibility of resigning, but refused it because he wanted to correct mistakes.

“We really evaluated this option in detail, which, apparently, would be simple for both myself and the vice minister. But then what will happen to the education system? Do we have people who would now come together and want to take these positions and solve the problems? We don’t see that. It is difficult even to attract experts to the commissions to evaluate the inspections”, the minister added.

Skirmantas Lisauskas/BNS photo/Gintautas Jakštas, Ramūnas Skaudius

The president is disappointed

President G.Nausėda stated on Saturday that he made a mistake when he appointed G.Jakšta as the Minister of Education, Science and Sports.

“This is one of the more painful topics, especially when remembering what happened recently. We are not doing well with the ministers, I will say frankly. I think I made a mistake in endorsing this minister. And that it is very difficult (…) when you make some voluntary decisions and see that the situation does not change”, G. Nausėda said while meeting with the voters who signed his candidacy for re-election in Kaunas.

G. Jakštas was appointed as the Minister of Education last July, the politician held the position of Deputy Minister until then.

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G. Jakštas hinted at a possible resignation from the post, but said that it will be possible to talk regarding it only when the problems regarding the intermediate examinations of eleventh graders, which have received criticism, are resolved.