OECD Reviews of School Resources: Lithuania 2016

Abstract

This work is published under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of OECD member countries.This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area. ISBN 978-92-64-25253-0 (print) ISBN 978-92-64-25254-7 (PDF) ISBN 978-92-64-25331-5 (epub) Series: OECD Reviews of School Resources ISSN 2413-4333 (print) ISSN 2413-3841 (online) The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and under the responsibility of the relevant Israeli authorities. The use of such data by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank under the terms of international law.Photo credits: Cover © VLADGRIN/Shutterstock.com.Corrigenda to OECD publications may be found on line at: www.oecd.org/about/publishing/corrigenda.htm. © OECD 2016You can copy, download or print OECD content for your own use, and you can include excerpts from OECD publications, databases and multimedia products in your own documents, presentations, blogs, websites and teaching materials, provided that suitable acknowledgement of OECD as source and copyright owner is given. All requests for public or commercial use and translation rights should be submitted to rights@oecd.org. Requests for permission to photocopy portions of this material for public or commercial use shall be addressed directly to the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) at info@copyright.com or the Centre français d'exploitation du droit de copie (CFC) at contact@cfcopies.com. Shewbridge, C. et al. (2016) Please cite this publication as: Lithuania was one of the education systems which opted to participate in the country review strand and host a visit by an external review team. Members of the OECD review team were Claire Shewbridge (OECD Secretariat), co-ordinator of the review; Katrina Godfrey (Department of Education in Northern Ireland); Deborah Nusche (OECD Secretariat); and Zoltán Hermann (Hungarian Academy of Sciences). The biographies of the members of the OECD review team are provided in Annex C. This publication is the report from the OECD review team. It provides, from an international perspective, an independent analysis of major issues facing the use of school resources in Lithuania, current policy initiatives, and possible future approaches. The report serves three purposes: i) to provide insights and advice to the Lithuanian education authorities; ii) to help OECD countries understand the Lithuanian approach to the use of school resources; and iii) to provide input for the final comparative analysis of the OECD School Resources Review. The scope for the analysis in this report includes early childhood education and school education. At the request of the Lithuanian authorities, the focus areas of the Review of School Resources in...

Comparing Professional Self-Confidence: Opinions of Lithuanian, Ukrainian and Finnish Teachers

“…Lithuanian teachers believe their profession is not attractive for youth and has a low prestige within the society, despite the attempts of government to enhance teachers' status. Moreover, due to the lack of students in schools, especially in rural areas, there is a lack of workload (less than 18 hours per week), so teachers are forced to have a second job, which causes declination of quality of working conditions, decreases teachers' job satisfaction, and, as a result, -decreases their professional self-efficacy, self-worth and professional self-confidence (Shewbridge et al, 2016). While in Finland teaching remains one of the most admirable and desirable professions with high social status and prestige.…”

“…One of the main differences is teachers' selection -in Finland only 10% of school graduates with the highest achievements after national Matriculation examination can enter the teaching profession (for instance, only 5 000 teachers out of 20 000 applicants were selected to become teachers in 2011) (OECD report, 2012). Therefore, only highly motivated and efficacious students are recruited into Finnish schools to become teachers, and their high scores about their own self-worth are expected To compare -Lithuanian government attracts high-achievers providing them with scholarships to enroll into teaching studies; however, 85% of graduates have doubts if they want to enter a teaching profession, thus, only insignificant part of young (3% aged till 30) teachers work at Lithuanian schools nowadays (Shewbridge et al, 2016).…”

“…It creates more favorable working conditions, enhances teachers' job satisfaction, making classes more manageable, thus, increases teachers' professional self-efficacy. Moreover, teachers' professional development is well-organized and developed in both countries (OECD report, 2012; Shewbridge et al, 2016). While there is a tendency in Ukrainian schools to increase school class size up to 38 pupils, at the same time, Ukrainian educational system is still highly centralized and there is a little teaching freedom within educational organizations -teachers have few opportunities to participate in decision-making processes or to introduce changes into the curriculum (Vitrukh, 2014).…”

Play for Children with Disability. Case Study from Lithuania

“…The play and other alternative methods in education institutions of Lithuania like in other countries for social integration of children with special needs and with SEN and for their education (formal and non-formal education), are underused. The proportion of special educational needs of students integrated into general education classes varies enormously by school type, size and location; OECD Reviews of School resources: Lithuania 2016 (Shewbridge, Godfrey, Nusche, 2016). Additionally, more could be done to encourage collaboration between teachers and professionals, including through increased opportunities for joint professional development and, particularly, extension of specialist professional support to early years' providers to ensure that needs are identified and supported at the earliest possible stage in a child's education.…”

Composition of the OECD Review Team

“…Requests for permission to photocopy portions of this material for public or commercial use shall be addressed directly to the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) at info@copyright.com or the Centre français d'exploitation du droit de copie (CFC) at contact@cfcopies.com. Shewbridge, C., et al (2016) …”