Polish could replace Russian in Lithuanian schools – PM

VILNIUS - The teaching of Russian as a second foreign language in Lithuanian schools could be replaced by Polish, Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte says.

"I am definitely in favor of more of Polish as a foreign language in schools," she told the Znad Wilii radio station on Wednesday.

She believes it should not be difficult to find Polish teachers as there are Polish schools in Lithuania where the number of schoolchildren is going down, and these teachers could move to Lithuanian schools.

"I would like children to have a better choice in schools, within our education system the responsible for, than Russian as now it's the only second foreign language we can teach because we simply don’t have teachers to teach other languages. I would be very much in favor of making Latvian, Polish, as the second foreign language, as accessible as possible," Simonyte said.

According to the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, Russian is the most popular second foreign language in schools this school year, with almost 15,000 sixth-graders learning it.

Lithuanian education leaders have recommended that schools abandon Russian as a second foreign language.