"Our common goal is to vaccinate teachers as soon as possible and I do believe that, if nothing changes, we will vaccinate pre-school and primary school teachers in February," the minister said during a meeting with members of the opposition Social Democratic Party of Lithuania on Thursday.
Asked if there were any plans to vaccinate school-leavers, the minister said teachers were the priority group, adding that in school-leavers' case, they could get back to classes once the general number of infections went down.
"Teachers are the priority group and we will try, as much as possibilities allow and the delivery of vaccines is effective, to vaccinate teachers," Siugzdiniene said.
In her words, remote consultations and video lessons are planned to help school-leavers prepare for their graduation exams, adding that consultations in person could be held once the situation improved.
Jolanta Karpaviciene, an adviser to President Gitanas Nauseda, hinted on Wednesday that school-leavers could be vaccinated against COVID-19.
The majority of schoolchildren, except for primary schoolchildren, were moved to distance or mixed learning on November 7 after the second lockdown was introduced in Lithuania. And all children were moved to distance learning in the middle of December when the lockdown was tightened.