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🇱🇹 Lithuania /Culture & Society

Nauseda says Lithuania must solve education problems: ‘This is not the time for heads to roll’

From Delfi · () Lithuanian

Translated from Lithuanian and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Approved/passed
  • Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda called for dialogue to address education-sector problems and said it was not time for “heads to roll.”
  • The dispute follows parliament’s decision to delay until September 2029 a requirement linking basic education completion to minimum results on the PUPP assessment.
  • Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius said he trusted Education Minister Raminta Popoviene, who rejected the president’s suggestion that she was merely imitating efforts to solve the sector’s problems.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has urged dialogue over the country’s education problems, warning against turning criticism into a campaign to remove officials. “We need to talk and look for a solution together,” he told journalists. “This is not the time for heads to roll.”

Nauseda said education faces many challenges and called for a different mood in the sector. He also said promises made to teachers should be implemented, adding that those involved were not on opposite sides and shared the same goal, even if they needed more determination to discuss and solve problems together.

His comments followed criticism of Education, Science and Sport Minister Raminta Popoviene. Nauseda did not directly answer when asked whether he still trusted her work. Popoviene said she respected his opinion but did not feel she was merely pretending to address the problems. She believed the criticism concerned the decision to cancel the minimum threshold for 10th-grade students taking the PUPP assessment.

This is not the time for heads to roll.

· Gitanas NausedaThe Lithuanian president argued that education problems should be addressed through dialogue rather than dismissals.

Nauseda said he expected to meet the minister soon, but Popoviene said she had not received an invitation. Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius meanwhile said he trusted her.

Parliament supported the president’s veto and the proposal to postpone until Sept. 1, 2029, the requirement that students reach at least a minimum level in the PUPP to obtain basic education. The stricter rules, originally adopted in 2022 and already delayed from 2024 to 2026, had been scheduled to take effect this September. The decision angered part of the education community. Thirty-six education, science, business and civic organizations had asked Nauseda to veto the amendment, and he returned it to parliament for reconsideration at the end of July.

We need to talk and look for a solution together, so that the education sector can operate in a different mood and the promises we made to teachers can be implemented.

· Gitanas NausedaNauseda called for cooperation to resolve problems in education.
About this summary

Originally published by Delfi in Lithuanian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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