The number of students in Lithuanian schools learning Russian as a second foreign language has decreased by more than 40% since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. If in the 2021–2022 academic year more than 110,000 students were learning Russian, this academic year the number has dropped to 65,700, according to BNS citing the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports of Lithuania. The ministry notes that the most noticeable changes in the choice of foreign languages occurred after 2022. German remains the second most popular foreign language. Currently, about 39,000 students are learning it, compared to 25,000 in the 2021–2022 academic year—a growth of over 50%. A similar trend has been observed for the French language: the number of students learning it has increased from 10,000 to 15,000. The fastest growth has been recorded for the Spanish language. Before the war, 766 students were learning it, and now there are about 15,000. Additionally, about a thousand students have chosen English as their second foreign language, while 279 have chosen Polish. The ministry emphasized that at the beginning of the academic year, the statistics are preliminary and may be adjusted. The Minister of Education, Science and Sports, Rimanta Popoviene, told BNS that the ministry is paying special attention to the development of German language teaching. According to her, the decline in the popularity of the Russian language is a natural process, as students are increasingly choosing other European languages. "Spanish and Italian are very attractive languages. We are currently working on a plan to strengthen the teaching of the German language, as military personnel from the German brigade are in Lithuania with their families, and their children are also studying in our schools," the minister noted. Popoviene believes that the popularity of the Russian language will continue to decline; however, it is currently impossible to completely abandon its teaching due to the lack of teachers for other foreign languages and the need to retrain Russian language teachers. According to the minister's estimate, this transition may take five to six years. The ministry also reported that in the last academic year, 51 Lithuanian schools completely stopped teaching Russian to sixth graders. At the same time, the agency acknowledges that there is a shortage of foreign language teachers, especially in small towns and rural areas. To address this issue, future teachers of German and French are offered state scholarships: up to 481 euros per month during their studies, and with the obligation to work for at least three years in a state or municipal school after graduation—up to 814 euros per month. Additionally, Russian language teachers are given the opportunity to retrain for free and gain the right to teach other subjects. As part of one such program, about half of the participants chose a specialization in the foreign languages of the European Union, predominantly German.
