Education
Everybody has a right to education in Lithuania. The secondaryeducation is compulsory. Nowadays the life in our country is very difficultand a lot of young people don’t go to school, they haven’t even gotsecondary education. There are a lot of young people, children especiallyin big town’s streets. Some of them work washing cars, selling papers, somebeg and some have nothing to do. These youngsters very often commit crimes.It is very important that every youngster would attend secondary school.They would be busier and couldn’t commit crimes. Some years ago secondary schools taught the same subjects, had thesame organization of education. Today they are very different: some of themteach humanitarian subjects, some – science. The school curriculum, theorganization of the lessons, the timing of the holidays, dressing vary fromschool to school. Subjects can be taught in three levels even at oneschool. You can take your examinations in three different levels too.Lithuanian children start attending secondary school when they are six orseven years old. They go to the primary schools which are in thekindergartens mostly. When they are ten or eleven years old they go to asecondary school. Pupils can stay at a secondary school for twelve years,but some of them leave secondary school at the end of the ninth form. Theygo to vocational junior colleges or manual training schools, where they canget both secondary education and the qualifications necessary for a job.Before that these pupils must take the examinations for the GeneralCertificate of Secondary Education. But not only these, all pupils musttake examinations. Everybody can go to a university after graduating from asecondary school, vocational junior college or manual training school. Thebrightest students have a chance of studying abroad.
Pupils can transfer freely from one school to another. Secondaryeducation is free. Pupils get their textbooks free, too. But some of higherschools and universities are not free. Students who have not very goodmarks in their Certificates of Secondary Education can study there too. Butthey have to pay money. Those pupils who are not very good at learning cango to evening school. It is easier to study there. As for me I attended secondary school No.5 in Marijampolė. I startattending my school when I was six years old. I have been going to thisschool for twelve years now. Our school is 24 years old. It is not verylarge: there are about 1000 schoolchildren and about 5 teachers in it. Ilike my school because there are my friends in it, because my school isfamous for skilled teachers. I am on a good footing with them. Someteachers are not very tolerant to schoolchildren who don’t agree with them,but most of them are very generous and nice people; I can go if I have aproblem to them. So I am sad at the thought of leaving my school, teachersand class friends. It is definitely our last year at school so I have to domy best. We have a canteen, a library, some cloak rooms, a big sport hall, aschool hall in our school. We have a large playing field near our school.Inside the school building we have a lot of special classrooms wheredifferent subjects are taught. The biology room is my favourite becausethere are many dummies in it. My favourite subjects are English, Biologyand Literature. There are some clubs at our school. We have got basketballand football teams. There are some singers and a lot of dancers at ourschool. On Saturdays we often have dances. We always celebrate variouscelebrations: The Day of Valentines, The Day of liars, The Day of teachers.We have a nice egg exhibitions in spring. But the most impressive is ourNew Year carnival. My parents want me to be a doctor. It is their ambition, and I amplanning to study medicine in Kaunas. I want to become a midwife. It’s avery responsible and significant profession. I hate having to ask my mumand dad for money. So I must study. But I don’t want to leave my familyand friends. Anyway, I’m scared of living on my own in a big town. I mustcontinue learning for the rest of my life. Education is very important in person’s life. The years when weattend at school are the happiest. Educated people are intelligent. The school year begins on the first of September and finishes inJune. The school year is divided into three terms.