Phil Sturgeon's Template Library - Can I put view partials in a theme folder?

[eluser]TomTom[/eluser]
I'm using Phil Sturgeon's Template Library in my CI installation. When I try to put view partials' files in a theme folder, they do get called properly, but if I try to echo a $template variable in them, I get an error message saying that $template variable isn't defined. If I place those same view partials in the root views folder, $template is echoed properly.

How can I have view partials inside a theme and pass $template to them at the same time?

I should add that at the same time $template is nicely passed to the layout file which resides in /application/themes/themefolder/layouts/default.php