President Grybauskaitė’s response to teachers’ demands: Impossible to do everything at once

“We must start thinking and realising that the time has come for us to return to the pre-crisis situation because our economy has been growing for several years in a row. The government is doing it as much as it can afford it for the time being,” President Grybauskaitė said.

She also said that over LTL 600 million (EUR 173 million) will be spent in 2015 for social needs.

“The economy has been growing and we must bring the economic growth results to our people. This must be done by the Government,” she said.

Strikes planned for early December

Lithuania’s Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius on Tuesday met with representatives of teachers’ trade unions, pledging to prepare a long-term program over the next weeks to increase funding.

The trade unions, which have already planned warning strikes, say the program would keep them from indefinite strikes, however, are not calling for preparations for the strike scheduled to start on 2 December.

“An agreement was reached today to work out a long-term term program for the development or the education system or simply a program similar to the one signed among political parties to raise funding of the defence system,” the prime minister told journalists after the meeting.

Andrius Navickas, the chairman of the Trade Union of Lithuanian Education Workers, said that the plans to launch the indefinite strike on 2 December are still on.

“We said that if an agreement is reached by that date [2 December] – a written one, not promises – we are not rushing or are eager to hold strikes or rallies,” he added.

According to information provided by the Education and Science Ministry, the warning strike last week included about 50 education institutions.

The strikes are supported by merely part of education trade unions.