The court on Friday rejected a request to hear the case quickly, saying that the case was complicated and national court would hear such a case for the first time.
„The hearing of the administrative case will start on June 10 and should end by the middle of July,“ the court said in a statement.
The decision means that the decree of Minister of Education and Science Dainius Pavalkis on the reduction of the compulsory number of words in an essay for ethnic minority school graduates from 500 to 400 during the Lithuanian-language graduation exam will stay in force. Under a proposal by the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania, the number of authors for essay writing has also been increased.
Members of the opposition, who appealed against the education minister's decree, including former Minister of Education and Science Gintaras Steponavicius, say exceptions run counter to plans for the introduction of a unified Lithuanian language and literature exam, which subsequently runs counter to the provision of the Law on Education, stating that „the evaluation of learning results is organized equally for schoolchildren from schools of all languages.“
The panel of judges underlined that determining the ratio of allowed positive discrimination and the principle of equality was key to this case.
The court believes a comprehensive legal analysis is needed in this case, involving the analysis of arguments of both sides, additional opinions, explanations of the issue involved and experts' opinions.
The court also turned to experts from Vilnius University, Mykolas Romeris University, Vytautas Magnus University, the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences as well as the European Law Department for their opinion.
