Born in Rokiškis
– The Kriaunai school was described extensively before it was closed. Closing is also loud. What did you feel then? Was it painful?
– We have been preparing for the closure of the school since 2015. Every September first, we counted how many students had gathered and whether the teaching process would still take place. The most difficult was in the spring of 2016, when I did not work from April to August – I was recovering from an operation. There were some teachers who wanted to close the school themselves and “leave” with large severance packages. But there was also a strong team of school patriots. Together with the students’ parents, we proved that the local school in Kriaunai is very important to us.
It was painful that the main school was closed in the spring of 2018 by some of the parents themselves – they sent their children to Antazavė and Dusetė schools in the neighboring Zarasai district. For another two years, we were the primary and pre-school education department of the Old Town Progymnasium Kriaunai, and in 2020 our school was no longer there.
It is sad that there is no scientific luminary left in the village, but this is the picture of the villages of all Lithuania. Not the time of village emptying, but the actual destruction of villages. It is also painful today that the principals of Rokiškis schools only complain that the schools are empty, and they are unable to collect the children from the villages. Today, 14 students leave Kriaunai for Antazavė and Dusetė schools in Zarasai district every morning.
Read more in “Hometown…”
The article Stase Idiene: “Today I am Stase” was posted by Gimtasis Rokiškis.