ALYTUS COUNTY - Education, health and culture
The famous painter and composer M.K.Ciurlionis was born in the county
Since 1994, the number of children receiving pre-school education has been increasing. In 2002, 52% of all children in the county aged between 3 and 6 years attended pre-school (in 1997-46%). In the period from 1998 to 2002 the number of general schools decreased by 9, however, the number of pupils in them remained unchanged. Presently, 32 thousand pupils attend the county?s 145 general schools. There are 9 vocational schools in the county, attended in 2002/2003 by approximately 3200 students. As Alytus county has no higher university level educational institutions, local youth usually study at schools in Vilnius or Kaunas. But in the 2000 year, Alytus Higher Technical school was reorganized in to Alytus College, where students study according to the non-university level educational programmes. The county?s only higher non-university institution, Alytus College, has 1328 students.
The number of physicians per 10 000 population in the county decreased marginally (from 26.7 to 25.7) in the period from 1994 to 2002. This is influenced by a drop in the number of physicians in Druskininkai town, which is the largest resort town in the county. At 85,9 hospital beds per 10 000 inhabitants, the number in 1997 dropped below the national average and in 2002 was 74,5 per 10 000 population. The number of visits to out-patient clinics has remained stable.
While the stock of books held by libraries has a tendency to decrease in the Republic, in Alytus county it increased. Ethnic museums located in the county do not attract a large number of visitors.
The county has many cultural monuments. The most prominent of these are the churches of Merkine (15th -17th century), Simnas (16th - 18th century), and Rudamina (16th - 18th century). Liudvikas Zamenhofas (1869 -1917), a doctor in Veisejai, was the founder of the international Esperanto language. A prominent Lithuanian painter and composer M. K. Ciurlionis (1875 - 1911) was also born in Varena. During the Second World War a squadron of French pilots were based on the Nemunas river in the village of Ryli?kiai.
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