As BPN reports, at the meeting of the Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on December 8, Lithuania urged the OSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities, Ambassador Kairat Abdrakhmanov, to continue to demand that the Belarusian authorities fulfill their obligations to the OSCE in providing education in the languages ​​of national minorities and restore education in the Lithuanian language, reports the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania.

"Lithuania highly appreciates the High Commissioner's attention to the problem of Lithuanian schools in Belarus and asks to use all available instruments so that Belarus fulfills its obligations to the OSCE by providing education in the language of national minorities," the message reads.

During his visit to Lithuania on November 7-8, Abdrakhmanov visited the Vilnius Grammar School named after Franziska Skaryna, which has been operating since 1994.

This is the only educational institution outside Belarus that implements state educational programs in the Belarusian language.

In November, the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus adopted in the first reading the bill "On changing the laws on education", which introduces the right to education in Belarus only in the state languages.

Thus, the document is in line with the new Education Code, according to which from September 1, 2022, education in all schools in Belarus must be conducted in Russian or Belarusian.

In September, the authorities allegedly closed a Lithuanian-language school in the village of Peliasa (Vorana district of Horadze region) due to non-compliance with fire safety regulations.

The children were transferred to other schools.

In the Piałaska school, which opened in 1992, children studied Lithuanian, Russian, Belarusian and English as well.

It was the first national school in Belarus, its founders were the Culture Fund and the Ministry of Education and Science of Lithuania (now the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports).

The educational process followed the curricula and programs of the Ministry of Education of Belarus.

Lithuania called on Belarus not to violate the obligations undertaken within the framework of the OSCE to guarantee education in the languages ​​of national minorities.

There are no Lithuanian and Polish schools in Belarus anymore

In September, the authorities allegedly closed a Lithuanian-language school in the village of Peliasa (Vorana district of Horadze region) due to non-compliance with fire safety regulations.

The children were transferred to other schools.

In the Piałaska school, which opened in 1992, children studied in the Lithuanian language, as well as Russian, Belarusian and English.

It was the first national school in Belarus, its founders were the Culture Fund and the Ministry of Education and Science of Lithuania (now the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports).

The school worked according to the curricula and programs of the Ministry of Education of Belarus.

Lithuania urged Belarus not to violate the obligations taken within the framework of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to guarantee national minorities the right to teach children in their languages.

Lithuanian-language education was also stopped at the school in the village of Rymdyuny, Ostravetska district, Horadze region.

The Rymdyun School, built in 1996 with Lithuanian funds, was maintained at the expense of the Republic of Belarus, while the Pelias School was funded by the Lithuanian Ministry of Education.

There are 82 students and 18 teachers in the Rymdyun school, 14 of whom are citizens of Lithuania.

There are 127 students and 23 teachers in the Peliaska school, 11 of whom are citizens of Lithuania.

In April, it also became known that from this school year, the only Polish-language schools in the country in Hrodna and Vaukavysk will be translated into Russian.

By the end of this academic year, two schools in Polish were operating in the country: school No. 36 in Hrodna and school in Vaukavysk.

There were about 620 students in the city school, and about 250 in the Vaukavy school.

According to the new directives of the Ministry of Education, one lesson of Polish language and literature per week was left in these schools, and the rest of the subjects were made Russian-language.

With the coming to power of Alyaksandr Lukashenka, the number of schools with Belarusian education decreased drastically, in Belarusian cities, with the exception of Minsk, there are no Belarusian-language schools left.