Raising Performance in Lithuanian Education - An International Perspective
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Lithuania has achieved steady expansion of participation in education, substantially widening access to early childhood education and care and tertiary education, coupling this with nearly universal participation in secondary education. However, if Lithuania’s education system is to help the nation respond effectively to economic opportunities and demographic challenges, improvements in the performance of its schools and its higher education institutions are needed. Improved performance requires that Lithuania clarify and raise expectations of performance, align resources in support of raised performance expectations, strengthen performance monitoring and the assurance of quality, and build institutional capacity to achieve high performance. This orientation to improvement should be carried across each sector of its education system.
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Raising Performance in Lithuanian Education - An International Perspective
- 1. RAISING PERFORMANCE IN LITHUANIAN EDUCATION AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE Vilnius, 16 October 2017 Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills - OECD
- 2. Responsibility decentralised to local governments to organise and supervise schooling School heads and higher education leaders given wide responsibility for the management of their institutions School funding methodology predictable and transparent, and takes equity into account Participation in schooling has risen, and from childhood through adulthood is at or above OECD averages 2 A reformed and inclusive education system
- 3. Principal Teachers School board Local/ regional authority National authority Principal + teachers Czech Republic 84.6 1.0 0.9 5.5 8.0 85.6 Latvia 60.0 5.1 9.9 9.3 15.7 65.1 Estonia 59.8 4.2 8.4 11.2 16.5 64.0 Lithuania 60.7 3.3 15.7 8.6 11.7 63.9 Poland 50.2 1.3 0.9 24.8 22.8 51.5 Finland 45.9 2.0 2.4 32.8 17.0 47.8 OECD average 39.0 2.5 12.3 23.1 23.1 41.5 Turkey 4.5 0.6 21.6 3.4 69.9 5.1 3 School heads and boards have wide responsibility for allocating resources Distribution of responsibility for school resources (in percentage, summing to 100%)
- 4. Spending per student from the age of 6 to 15 and science performance Figure II.6.2 Luxembourg Switzerland NorwayAustria Singapore United States United Kingdom Malta Sweden Belgium Iceland Denmark Finland Netherlands Canada Japan Slovenia Australia Germany Ireland FranceItaly Portugal New Zealand Korea Spain Poland Israel Estonia Czech Rep. LatviaSlovak Rep. Russia Croatia Lithuania Hungary Costa Rica Chinese Taipei Chile Brazil Turkey Uruguay Bulgaria Mexico Thailand Montenegro Colombia Dominican Republic Peru Georgia 11.7, 411 R² = 0.01 R² = 0.41 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 Scienceperformance(scorepoints) Average spending per student from the age of 6 to 15 (in thousands USD, PPP)
- 5. School funding equalises staff and learning materials between advantaged and disadvantaged schools Figure I.6.14 -3 -2 -2 -1 -1 0 1 1 CABA(Argentina) Mexico Peru Macao(China) UnitedArabEmirates Lebanon Jordan Colombia Brazil Indonesia Turkey Spain DominicanRepublic Georgia Uruguay Thailand B-S-J-G(China) Australia Japan Chile Luxembourg Russia Portugal Malta Italy NewZealand Croatia Ireland Algeria Norway Israel Denmark Sweden UnitedStates Moldova Belgium Slovenia OECDaverage Hungary ChineseTaipei VietNam CzechRepublic Singapore Tunisia Greece TrinidadandTobago Canada Romania Qatar Montenegro Kosovo Netherlands Korea Finland Switzerland Germany HongKong(China) Austria FYROM Poland Albania Bulgaria SlovakRepublic Lithuania Estonia Iceland CostaRica UnitedKingdom Latvia Meanindexdifferencebetweenadvantaged anddisadvantagedschools Index of shortage of educational material Index of shortage of educational staff Disadvantaged schools have more resources than advantaged schools Disadvantaged schools have fewer resources than advantaged schools
- 6. 6 Enrolment in early childhood and pre-primary education is above or close to the OECD average 0 20 40 60 80 100 Age 2 Age 3 Age 4 Age 5 Age 6 % Lithuania OECD average Nordic countries
- 7. Tertiary attainment is above the OECD average Figure A1.2 Educational attainment of 25-34 year-olds (2016) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Korea Canada Russian… Lithuania Ireland UnitedKingdom Luxembourg Australia Switzerland Norway UnitedStates Israel Sweden Denmark Netherlands Belgium France Poland NewZealand Iceland Slovenia OECDaverage Latvia Finland Estonia EU22average Spain Greece Austria Portugal SlovakRepublic CzechRepublic Germany Turkey Hungary Chile CostaRica Colombia SaudiArabia Italy Mexico Argentina China Brazil India Indonesia SouthAfrica Below upper secondary education Upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary education Tertiary education %
- 8. Let’s look at these, in turn Early childhood education and care Primary and lower secondary schooling Upper Secondary schooling Tertiary Education 8 But challenges remain….
- 9. Early Childhood Education and Care 9
- 10. 0 1 2 3 4 5 Sweden Estonia Russia Latvia Bulgaria Iceland Norway Hungary Denmark Finland Singapore Israel Belgium HongKong(China) Spain SlovakRepublic Uruguay France Macao(China) Brazil B-S-J-G(China) Japan Germany CzechRepublic Lithuania Slovenia Thailand Austria Croatia Italy ChineseTaipei OECDaverage Poland Peru Korea Mexico Luxembourg Greece Montenegro DominicanRepublic NewZealand UnitedKingdom UnitedStates Switzerland CostaRica Qatar UnitedArab… Colombia Australia Canada Chile Ireland Tunisia Portugal Turkey Years Disadvantaged schools Advantaged schools Number of years in pre-primary education among students attending socio-economically … Socio-economic disparities in ECEC participation have been especially wide Table II.6.51 OECD average
- 11. 11 Urban-Rural Disparities in ECEC Enrolment Persist 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 % 1-2 years old All areas Urban areas 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 % 3-6 years old All areas Urban areas
- 12. Rates of return to one Euro invested in educational interventions for disadvantaged and well-off children at different stages of the life cycle Source: Adapted from Cunha et al. (2006) in Wossmann (2008), Efficiency and equity of European education and training policies.
- 13. Sources: Adapted from Council for Early Childhood Development, (2010), in Naudeau S. et al. (2011).
- 14. Home learning environments matter… The home learning environment plays a major role, as do socio-economic factors such as family income and parents’ educational level. However, after accounting for these factors, researchers in England found that pre-school had almost as much impact on children’s education achievement at age 11 as school did – even though children had spent more years in school than in preschool.
- 15. Monitoring ECEC quality remains undeveloped Municipal education departments are responsible, but lack… Plans for monitoring the quality of education and care A template from central authorities that helps them do this ECEC specialists to carry out the work of monitoring Improvements are needed in identifying ECEC students with special educational needs (SEN), and monitoring health and nutrition needs of all SEN identification is not consistent across municipalities Teachers lack training to detect, and to adapt care and instruction for SEN Health and nutrition dimensions of well-being not integrated into quality monitoring Workforce professional development is not yet sufficient 15 And beyond ECEC enrolment…
- 16. Policy goals and minimum standards Curriculum (and learning standards) Family and community engagement Data, monitoring and research Workforce quality Quality means placing children at the centre of policy design
- 17. 17 Providing a strong start for learning and life Supporting the continuing development needs of the ECEC workforce Develop Comprehensive Quality Monitoring Improving provision for children with special needs, and focus on health and nutrition for all Expand participation in ECEC Recommendations • Expand participation in ECEC In rural areas by stimulating parent demand for services. In largest urban areas by expanding supply of ECEC through equitable funding and sustainable funding models • Develop comprehensive quality monitoring • Improve identification of and provision for children with special needs, and focus on health and nutrition for all • Support the continuing development needs of the ECEC workforce
- 18. Primary and Lower Secondary Education 18
- 19. Trends in science performance (PISA) 2006 2009 2012 2015 OECD 450 470 490 510 530 550 570 OECD average Studentperformance
- 20. Trends in science performance (PISA) 450 470 490 510 530 550 570 2006 2009 2012 2015 OECD average
- 21. Poverty is not destiny - Science performance by international deciles of the PISA index of economic, social and cultural status (ESCS) 280 330 380 430 480 530 580 630 DominicanRepublic40 Algeria52 Kosovo10 Qatar3 FYROM13 Tunisia39 Montenegro11 Jordan21 UnitedArabEmirates3 Georgia19 Lebanon27 Indonesia74 Mexico53 Peru50 CostaRica38 Brazil43 Turkey59 Moldova28 Thailand55 Colombia43 Iceland1 TrinidadandTobago14 Romania20 Israel6 Bulgaria13 Greece13 Russia5 Uruguay39 Chile27 Latvia25 Lithuania12 SlovakRepublic8 Italy15 Norway1 Spain31 Hungary16 Croatia10 Denmark3 OECDaverage12 Sweden3 Malta13 UnitedStates11 Macao(China)22 Ireland5 Austria5 Portugal28 Luxembourg14 HongKong(China)26 CzechRepublic9 Poland16 Australia4 UnitedKingdom5 Canada2 France9 Korea6 NewZealand5 Switzerland8 Netherlands4 Slovenia5 Belgium7 Finland2 Estonia5 VietNam76 Germany7 Japan8 ChineseTaipei12 B-S-J-G(China)52 Singapore11 Scorepoints Bottom decile Second decile Middle decile Ninth decile Top decile Figure I.6.7 % of students in the bottom international deciles of ESCS OECD median student
- 22. Mathematics Reading Science Below Level 2 (less than 420.07 score points) Level 5 or above (above 606.99 score points) Below Level 2 (less than 407.47 score points) Level 5 or above (above 625.61 score points) Below Level 2 (less than 409.54 score points) Level 5 or above (above 633.33 score points Lithuania 25.4 6.9 25.1 4.4 24.7 4.2 Estonia 11.2 14.2 10.6 11.0 8.8 13.5 Latvia 21.4 5.2 17.7 4.3 17.2 3.8 Poland 17.2 12.2 14.4 8.2 16.3 7.3 Denmark 13.6 11.7 15.0 6.5 15.9 7.0 Finland 13.6 11.7 11.1 13.7 11.5 14.3 Norway 17.1 10.6 14.9 12.2 18.7 8.0 Sweden 20.8 10.4 18.4 10.0 21.6 8.5 OECD average 23.4 10.7 20.1 8.3 21.2 7.7 22 Fewer high performers than many others in region, or the OECD average Percentage of top and low performers
- 23. OECD average Lithuania Rural area Town City Rural area Town City Percentage of students (%) 9% 54% 37% 21% 41% 38% Average socio-economic and cultural status -0.35 -0.09 0.13 -0.57 -0.10 0.26 Rural area compared to city Town compared to rural area City compared to town Rural area compared to city Town compared to rural area City compared to town Unadjusted performance difference -31.83 -16.65 15.18 -55.32 25.69 29.63 Adjusted performance difference (student and school ESCS) 3.96 1.31 -2.65 28.25 22.18 -6.08 23 Large city/rural gaps in performance, due to socio- economic disadvantage Performance disadvantage of students in rural areas on PISA science assessment 2015
- 24. Teachers still earn less than similarly tertiary- educated workers Figure D3.1 Lower secondary teachers' salaries relative to earnings for tertiary-educated workers (2015) 0.5 1.0 1.5 Portugal Luxembourg Latvia Greece Finland Germany Israel Estonia France EU22average England(UK) Slovenia Denmark Flemishcom.(Belgium) Lithuania OECDaverage NewZealand Netherlands Australia Sweden Poland Austria Frenchcom.(Belgium) Scotland(UK) Norway Chile Hungary Italy UnitedStates SlovakRepublic CzechRepublic Ratio
- 25. 25 An ageing teaching workforce Age distribution of teachers in primary education (2014) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 OECD average EU22 average Lithuania % < 30 year-olds 30-39 year-olds 40-49 year-olds 50-59 years >= 60 years 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 OECD average EU22 average Lithuania % < 30 years 30-39 years 40-49 years 50-59 years >= 60 years Lower Secondary EducationPrimary Education
- 26. Student-teacher ratios and class size Figure II.6.14 CABA (Argentina) Jordan Viet Nam Poland United States Chile Denmark Hungary B-S-G-J (China) Turkey Georgia Chinese Taipei Mexico Russia Albania Hong Kong (China) Japan Belgium Algeria Colombia Peru Macao (China) Switzerland Malta Dominican Republic Netherlands Singapore Brazil Kosovo Finland Thailand R² = 0.25 5 10 15 20 25 30 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 Student-teacherratio Class size in language of instruction High student-teacher ratios and small class sizes Low student-teacher ratios and large class sizes OECD average OECDaverage
- 27. Learning time and science performance Figure II.6.23 Finland Germany Switzerland Japan Estonia Sweden Netherlands New Zealand Macao (China) Iceland Hong Kong (China) Chinese Taipei Uruguay Singapore Poland United States Israel Bulgaria Korea Russia Italy Greece B-S-J-G (China) Colombia Chile Mexico Brazil Costa Rica Turkey Montenegro Peru Qatar Thailand United Arab Emirates Tunisia Dominican Republic R² = 0.21 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 35 40 45 50 55 60 PISAsciencescore Total learning time in and outside of school OECD average OECD average OECDaverage
- 28. Learning time and science performance Figure II.6.23 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 Finland Germany Switzerland Japan Estonia Sweden Netherlands NewZealand Australia CzechRepublic Macao(China) UnitedKingdom Canada Belgium France Norway Slovenia Iceland Luxembourg Ireland Latvia HongKong(China) OECDaverage ChineseTaipei Austria Portugal Uruguay Lithuania Singapore Denmark Hungary Poland SlovakRepublic Spain Croatia UnitedStates Israel Bulgaria Korea Russia Italy Greece B-S-J-G(China) Colombia Chile Mexico Brazil CostaRica Turkey Montenegro Peru Qatar Thailand UnitedArabEmirates Tunisia DominicanRepublic Scorepointsinscienceperhouroftotallearningtime Hours Intended learning time at school (hours) Study time after school (hours) Score points in science per hour of total learning time
- 29. 29 Boys lag in science and especially reading Gender differences (boys-girls) in mathematics, science and reading performance in PISA 2015 -55 -45 -35 -25 -15 -5 5 15 25 Lithuania Estonia Latvia Poland OECD average Meanscoredifference(boys-girls) Science Mathematics Reading
- 30. Use of assessments by teachers to improve classroom practice is limited Assessment use is not a priority in the selection and training of school leaders 30 Extensive standardised assessments provide rich information, but are not fully used
- 31. 31 Enhance the capacity of Lithuanian students to use knowledge and skills Establishing conditions for a high quality and attractive teaching profession Improving quality assurance, school management, and classroom practice through improved use of assessments Continue consolidation of the school network Recommendations • Enhance the capacity of Lithuanian students to use knowledge and skills to a high level Improve learning through expanded instructional time. Narrow gaps in performance by providing targeted support for rural schools, and targeted interventions for boys. • Establish conditions for a high quality and attractive teaching profession • Improve quality assurance, school management, and classroom practice through improved use of assessments • Continue consolidation of the school network
- 33. 33 Upper secondary attainment is above the OECD average Upper secondary graduation rates (2014) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 % Total Over 25 years old Below 25 years old
- 34. 34 About three in four complete general secondary rather than vocational education 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 % Vocational General
- 35. 35 Reforms underway, but VET is not well regarded EU27 BEL CZE DNK DEU EST IRL GRC ESP FRA ITA LVA LUX HUN NLD AUT POL PRT SVN SVK FIN SWE GBR Lithuania 45 55 65 75 85 95 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 Vocational education and training offers high quality learning (% of total 'agree' responses) Positive image of Vocational education and training (% of total 'positive' responses)
- 36. • VET teaching workforce has limited experience in working life, and little circulation between school and work to update knowledge and skills • New sectoral training facilities created, but not always accessible to students • Benefits of VET not yet well documented for families • Limited pathways from secondary VET to higher education 36 Continuing challenges in raising quality, relevance, and image of VET
- 37. Intended: continuous and comprehensive learning that is competency-oriented Delivered: teaching and learning is focused by high stakes matura examination Effort invested toward end of studies, rather than continuously Focus is on tested subjects, rather than full curriculum 37 Gap between the intended curriculum and the delivered curriculum in general education
- 38. 38 Recommendations Continue to improve the quality, relevance, and attractiveness of vocational education • Improve the evidence of VET benefits made available to students and families • Strengthen the ability of schools to provide high quality VET through improvements to teacher training and careers • Improve the accessibility of the centres to students through improved student support • Improve opportunities for upper secondary vocational students to make full use of the pathway to tertiary education Revise assessment to bridge the gap between the intended and delivered curriculum in general education Improving the quality and attractiveness of vocational education Achieving the intended curriculum in upper secondary general education
- 40. Number. of universities Number. of polytechnics Number. of inhabitants (in million) Number. of HEI students (in thousands, 2012) Number of HEIs per million inhabitants Number of HEIs per 10 000 students Lithuania 23 24 3.2 159.5 14.7 2.9 Finland 14 24 5.5 308.9 6.9 1.2 Denmark 8 16 5.7 275.0 4.2 0.9 Ireland 7 14 4.6 192.6 4.6 1.1 Netherlands 14 37 16.9 793.7 3.0 0.6 Switzerland 12 9 8.2 269.6 2.6 0.8 40 Unusually large number of higher education institutions Number of higher education institutions per inhabitant and student (2012)
- 41. 41 Facing severe demographic strain Forecast number of entrants, 2016-2020, selected universities 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Klaipėda University Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences Mykolas Romeris University Šiauliai University
- 42. 42 With low international mobility among Lithuanian higher education researchers Share of higher education institution researchers who have worked abroad for more than 3 months in the last ten years (2012) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 %
- 43. Scientific publications per million population International scientific co-publications per million population Public-private co-publications per million population Lithuania 1 022 355.3 1.7 Estonia 1 997 907.7 6.8 Latvia 760 221.0 0.5 Poland 981 251.2 3.7 Denmark 4 066 2 066.7 143.5 Sweden 3 576 1 774.1 107.8 EU-28 average - 459.2 33.9 43 Relatively low international and private sector collaboration, and scientific output
- 44. International student mobility helps create networks of competencies, particularly at higher levels of education Figure C4.3 International students (inflow) and national students abroad (outflow) as a percentage of total national students (2015) New Zealand Australia United Kingdom Switzerland Austria BelgiumCanada Netherlands Denmark Czech Republic France Finland GermanyHungary Ireland Sweden Slovak Republic Latvia ItalyUnited States Portugal Estonia Japan Norway Lithuania Russian Federation Slovenia Poland KoreaTurkey Chile China 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Studentinflow Student outflow Tertiary Luxembourg ( 23;73)
- 45. 45 Tertiary participation is high, but not equitable Percentage of 25-34 year-olds with tertiary attainment, by household income quintile (2014) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 Q1 Q2 Cohort average Q3 Q4 Q5 %
- 46. Adults with tertiary-educated parents are twice more likely to reach that level themselves than those without Figure A4.3 Share of 30-44 year-olds who completed tertiary-type A or an advanced research programme, by parents' educational attainment (2012 or 2015) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 Italy SlovakRepublic Poland Turkey France Singapore CzechRepublic Greece Spain NorthernIreland England Israel UnitedStates Chile Ireland Australia Lithuania Average RussianFederation Netherlands Canada Korea Norway Slovenia FlemishCom. Germany NewZealand Estonia Japan Finland Sweden Denmark Austria % At least one parent has attained tertiary education Both parents have less than tertiary educational attainment
- 47. • Who enters and completes tertiary education, and what employment outcomes follow? Key populations – rural or disadvantaged -- not monitored. • There are no equity policy targets (e.g. percent of secondary vocational graduates entering college or university) • Policies do not focus on reducing inequalities in tertiary education. Some – such as competitively awarded public funding for study places - risk widening inequities 47 Equity monitoring and policies are missing
- 48. 48 Recommendations • Consolidate tertiary institutions to raise efficiency and quality • Balance attractiveness and quality in internationalisation • Monitor and support equity in tertiary education Consolidate tertiary institutions to raise efficiency and quality Balance attractiveness and quality in internationalisation Monitor and support equity in tertiary education
- 49. 49 Overarching recommendations Raising performance for all students Clarify and raise performance expectations Aligning resources in support of raised performance expectations Strengthening performance monitoring and ensuring quality Building institutional capacity to achieve high performance • Clarify and raise expectations of performance at all levels • Align resources to raised performance expectations • Strengthen performance monitoring and quality assurance • Build institutional capacity to achieve high performance
- 50. 50 50 Thank you Find out more about our work at www.oecd.org/edu – All publications – The complete micro-level database Discover PISA 2015 results by country www.compareyourcountry.org/pisa Email: Andreas.Schleicher@OECD.org Twitter: SchleicherOECD
Notes de l'éditeur
- After accounting for students’ and schools’ socio-economic status
- There are wide and persistent gaps between urban and rural areas of Lithuania in the participation of children aged 0-6 in pre-school education. Participation in ECEC lags in the nation’s rural areas, where the incidence of poverty and ill health are highest, and young children might benefit most from access to high quality ECEC. At ages 3-6 one there is nearly full ECEC participation in urban areas – and half this level (48%) in rural communities.
- And the returns of ECEC to society are particularly high for disadvantaged children who don’t have a stimulating environment at home and in the community
- Research shows ECEC provides a unique opportunity to interact with brain plasticity in areas such as emotional control, social skills, but also language and numeracy. If we miss this window, we may miss it forever
- I. Expand participation a. In rural areas, stimulate parent demand for services. Work with hospitals to educate new parents about the benefits of ECEC, enlist advocates among paediatricians and other health professionals who provide ongoing care to small children, and consider expanding home visiting, ensuring regular visits to rural families. b. In urban areas -- create sustainable and equitable funding models to expand supply (for early ages). Consider having families make a contribution to ECEC places based upon their ability to pay – which is assessed according to a common methodology. This arrangement would provide additional ECEC funding by obtaining payments from those families who have the ability to pay fees and are not doing so under present arrangements. II. Improve provision for children with special education needs, and focus on health and nutrition of all. a. Standardise procedures for referring children with special needs. Rely on common criteria across municipalities to ensure that children receive the same opportunities for services regardless of where they live. Strengthen SEN curriculum in teacher pre-service and in-service training programmes to improve the capacity of the teaching workforce to support SEN students. Consider the integration of health dimensions into quality monitoring. Do this by engage the Ministry of Health in the development of the quality monitoring system. d. Train paediatricians and other health care professionals on the basic elements of ECEC, including identification of children with special needs and the importance of ECEC overall. III. Develop comprehensive quality monitoring One option – have municipal education officials monitor the quality of care using a template developed by the Ministry through consultation. This template would lay out what are developmentally appropriate activities, suitable learning materials/resources at these stages, effective learning practices, and acceptable ways of assessing early learners. Alternatively, assign responsibility for external quality assurance to the National Agency for School Evaluation – which is presently responsible for primary and secondary schooling. IV. Support the development needs of the ECEC workforce Invest more time in training teachers in classroom settings as part of initial teacher training, with emphasis on training teachers in interacting with young children and using curricula and methodological guidelines. Partner with teacher training institutions to develop coaching and mentoring models for teachers already in classrooms. Embed professional development into the process of quality monitoring, creating a system that focuses on measuring quality, reflecting on results, and supporting teachers in making improvements based upon monitoring.
- We did our last PISA assessment of learning outcomes in science in 2006, and it was a quite different world then. It is hard to imagine but we did not have the iphone then. Twitter was still a sound, Skype for most people was a typographical error in those times, the amazon was still a river, there was no android, no video streaming. But science learning outcomes in the industrialised world remained entirely flat during those years. And the world moved on, streetmaps became dynamic, cars became electric and started to drive automatically, drones started to fly, and crowdfunding hugely amplified the potential of each of us individually and of us collectively. But again, this did not translate into improved learning outcomes. And in just the last few years, so many things have happened, virtual reality brought the whole world to each of us in real time, 3D printers can produce right where we are, robotics is changing the lives of people, or think about big data, the cloud, biogenetics and our capacity to affect life as such. But science performance of students remained unfazed by all of this. When you see that, you might be tempted to drop the idea of improving education, as an agenda that is too big, too complex and too politically charged and too entrenched in vested interests to warrant real progress. But dont give up yet, the PISA data also show some amazing success stories.
- Portugal kept moving on from poor to adequate, despite a difficult financial crisis. Singapore kept advancing from good to great. The UK held its ground. So there is hope
- Or consider this chart. Here you see student learning outcomes by decile of social background. The red square signals the performance of the 10% most disadvantaged students in the Dominican Republic, and the green triangle the performance of the 10% most privileged students in that country. So there is a big achievement gap in the Dominican Republic. And people who see this often conclude that poverty is simply destiny. But when you look at this across countries, you can see how students from similar social backgrounds show very different performance levels depending on the country where they go to school. Consider that the learning outcomes among the 10% most disadvantaged students in Viet Nam compared still favourably to the average student in the Western world. Consider that in most countries we find educational excellence among some of the most disadvantaged schools. And consider that many of the world’s leading education systems have not held this position since long. So it can be done.
- A performance gap exists between students from urban and rural areas in core subject areas. This disadvantage is larger than the OECD average, and larger than found among most of Lithuania’s regional peers. The unadjusted performance difference between rural and urban students on the 2015 PISA science assessment (-55.32) is far wider than that typically found in OECD member countries (-31.83), and roughly equivalent to a 1.5 year learning gap between rural and urban students. However, after taking account of the socio-economic and cultural status of rural families and schools in Lithuania, rural students outperform their urban peers (+28.25)
- The teaching workforce of Lithuania is substantially older than either the OECD or EU-22 average. The average age of teachers is 48.1 years in primary education and 48.9 in secondary education. Some 41% of primary teachers and 44% of lower secondary teachers were 50 years old or older in 2014, which are significantly higher than the OECD averages (30% and 34%, respectively).
- Enhance the capacity of Lithuanian students to use knowledge and skills to a high level Improve learning opportunities for all by expanding in-school instructional time, through a longer instructional year, by starting compulsory primary schooling at age 6 (rather than age 7), or both. Narrow socio-economic and demographic gaps in performance. In rural schools, consider targeted teacher quality initiatives (e.g. wage premia) and added learning support and enrichment in rural schools, e.g. before and after school, and during holidays. For boys, provided targeted interventions, e.g. in reading, where their performance lags. More effectively address equity within the funding formula. Consider assigning larger weights to socio-economically disadvantaged students in the funding formula. Establish conditions for a high quality and attractive teaching profession. Manage the current oversupply of teachers while making teaching more attractive to the most qualified young people (especially in key areas of shortage) to join the profession. Develop strategies for reallocating, redeploying and retiring teachers who will be affected by school consolidation. Secure funding in the short term to help attract and retain new talent into teaching; and raise teacher salaries considerably in the long term to make teaching more attractive for talented young people. Create a more coherent teacher career pathway that rewards teaching excellence and allows teachers to diversify their career pathways. Ensure that new teachers can work in a well-supported environment and receive frequent feedback and mentoring in early stages of their career, and diversify and clarify the range of roles that should be taken on by teachers at different qualification levels. Improve quality assurance, school management, and classroom practice through improved use of assessments Ensure that the National Agency for School Evaluation uses assessment results in school monitoring, and consider the use of performance-based prioritisation for external school quality assurance reviews. Make assessment use part of the nation’s teacher competency framework, initial teacher training curriculum, and continuing professional development. Make capacity to use assessments in managing schools part of the school leader profile and selection process. Evaluate whether the lower secondary completion examination (Test of Basic Education Learning Achievements) -- which sets no standards with respect to proficiency and generates no performance incentives -- is an effective use of school resources. Continue consolidation of the school network [from School Resources Review, 2016] Avoid introducing a universal class basket funding scheme that would weaken incentives for schools to organise schooling efficiently and to compete for students. Consider alternative measures to address funding challenges at the school level. Take into account cost differences due to teacher composition. Cost differences could be smoothly incorporated into the funding formula by assigning different weights for categories of schools with a high, average or low salary cost index. Note: recent public discussions have focused on replacing the student basket by a class basket. In contrast to the student basket, the class basket allocates funding as a function of the number of classes, rather than a function of student enrolment. At present each additional student brings a student basket to their school. Under the class basket funding methodology, each marginal student would not bring additional funding – only students at class size thresholds. The rationale behind the class basket is to recognise that the centrally funded teaching cost depends on the number of classes more than on the number of students – and that despite advantageous weighting, the student basket mechanism does not fully cover teaching costs of small schools that cannot benefit of economies of scale. Under a class basket methodology schools would have weaker incentives to compete for additional students where the incremental or marginal student cannot form a new class. A class basket methodology would create incentives for schools to reduce the size of their classes. To maximise revenue per student, schools would reduce each class to meet the minimum regulated size criteria. This is opposite to the student basket funding mechanism, which creates incentives for schools to maximise their class size. Thus, a universal class basket – applied to all schools – would likely help secure higher funding for smaller schools and be likely to significantly reduce efficiency in the nation’s schools through its incentive effects.
- Lithuania’s level of upper secondary enrolment and attainment is among the highest in OECD and partner countries. In 2014, 93% of 15-19 year-olds were enrolled in educational institutions, as compared to the OECD average of 84% (OECD, 2016a). Upper secondary attainment is high, as well, and projections based on current patterns suggest that 92% of today’s young Lithuanians will complete their upper secondary education over their lifetime -- well above the OECD 85% average.
- Lithuania provides general and vocational upper secondary pathways, and students who have completed lower secondary education may choose on which path they wish to continue their studies. Students most often choose the general secondary path. In 2014, about 73% of students chose upper secondary general education while the remaining 27% of upper secondary students chose to enrol in vocational education. This share is well below the OECD average of 44%, though broadly similar to that of Baltic neighbours Latvia and Estonia.
- When surveyed (Eurobarometer, 2011), 64% of Lithuanian respondents had a positive image of vocational education and training – among the lowest values in the European Union, and below the EU-27 average of 71%. Only 61% of Lithuanian respondents indicated that vocational education offered high quality learning (75% for EU-27) and 43% judged it to provide good career opportunities (72% for EU-27) – both are the lowest values among respondent countries.
- I. Continue to improve the quality, relevance, and attractiveness of VET a. Improve the evidence of VET benefits made available to students. Implement the recently authorised human resources monitoring system (integrating schooling and employment records), using it to provide concrete evidence of VET benefits to prospective students and their families. b. Strengthen the capacity of schools to provide high quality VET Make work experience a prerequisite for entry into vocational teaching, and adopt policies that support ongoing movement between workplace and teaching as the principal means of continuing professional development. Review teacher compensation, advancement, and retirement policies to support career circulation between school and work. Reward work-based instruction of students by modifying the student basket funding methodology for vocational schools c. Improve the accessibility of the centres through a system of student support that meets living costs, is easily accessible to all eligible students, and is well-publicised through web resources and school-based advising. d. Improve opportunities for upper secondary vocational students to make full use of the pathway to tertiary education by raising the quality of general education teaching made available to secondary vocational students. Bridge the Gap between Curriculum as Intended and Delivered Provide incentives for students to invest earlier and more comprehensively in the secondary curriculum, and for teachers to focus on the development of competence rather than knowledge reproduction a. To support earlier and more continuous investment in the curriculum, consider using moderated marking of classroom-based work and increasing the role of grades in establishing the competitive score used for higher education entry. b. Consider implementing teacher-led assessment redesign. Follow the example of foreign language teachers, extending it across the curriculum: teacher-led assessment redesign that is competency-focused and supported by training in marking, reoriented classroom practices and instructional materials aligned to the newly redesigned assessment.
- Highly regarded tertiary systems in Europe – in Finland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland, and Ireland – have grappled with questions of institutional scale and system design in recent years, reducing the number and increasing the scale of their higher education institutions. National authorities in some of these systems, such as Finland and the Netherlands, are concerned that they have not yet achieved an optimal number and scale of higher education institutions. All of these systems have far fewer higher education institutions relative to the number of students and inhabitants than Lithuania. In 2012 Finland maintained 6.9 institutions per million inhabitants, and 1.2 institutions per 10 000 students – compared to Lithuania’s 14.7 institutions per million inhabitants, and 2.9 institutions per 10 000 students.
- Between 2010 and 2014 tertiary enrolments fell by 32%, and continued declines in the size of the 18-25 year-old age cohort are forecast in the years ahead. Forecasts produced by the nation’s monitoring body for science and higher education, MOSTA., show that five of the nation’s universities may have no entering students by 2020. Lithuania’s severe demographic pressures create three serious challenges for its system of tertiary education. Falling student numbers risk declines in efficiency as student/teacher ratios fall and facilities are underused. Declining enrolments pose a threat to the quality of instructional programmes, as course offerings and instructor numbers decline. Lithuania finds it difficult to achieve the critical mass of researchers, facilities, and research infrastructure needed to effectively perform research at an international level. Falling student numbers exacerbate a problem of scale facing Lithuanian public university institutions -- five of which enrol fewer than 5 000 students, and none enrol 20 000 students.
- International mobility among Lithuania’s researchers – which is vital for a small nation -- is very low. The proportion of higher researchers working outside of Lithuania in international settings is well below that of Estonia and other high-performing countries in Central and Eastern Europe, such as Hungary.
- Measures of performance drawn from bibliometric data provide evidence of the limited capacity of Lithuanian higher education to engage in research at international levels, with international collaborators, and with private sector partners. Scientific publications per million of population, while higher than Latvia and on par with Poland, are below those of Estonia and the Czech Republic, and far below – by a factor of 3.0 or 3.5 – those of innovation intensive countries such as Sweden and Denmark. Highly cited scientific publications comprise 6% of scientific publications. Here, too, Lithuania outperforms Latvia and Poland, but lags behind Estonia and Sweden and Denmark. Lithuania’s performance with respect to scientific publications published with international co-authors – important for a small country that has difficulty achieving critical mass – follows the same pattern as high-citation publications. Approximately 40% of scientific publications have international collaborators, a share smaller than that of Estonia and Nordic high performers, and modestly higher than that of Latvia and Poland. A second form of collaboration, co-publications between public and private authors, is also quite low, reflecting weakly developed industry-academia scientific collaboration in Lithuania.
- Original title and subtitle: International student circulation in total tertiary education (2015) International or foreign students studying in the country (brain gain) and national students studying abroad (brain drain) as a percentage of total national students studying home and abroad
- Lithuania has achieved an especially high rate of tertiary attainment for its young adults. However, tertiary attainment is not equitable. Among households in the lowest income quintile, only 16% have completed tertiary education – while among households in the highest income quintile 80% have done so.
- Most student support is merit-based, rather than need-based. In 2009 financial support for the most disadvantaged tertiary students was introduced through social scholarships to those whose family receives social benefits, who are themselves single parents, who have a single parent that does not hold a job, or those with a disability. In 2013 about 4% of students received a social scholarship. Student funding for higher education places is linked – principally – to national matura examination results, with publicly funded seats awarded to those who have the state matura scores for the programmes and institutions to which they are seeking entry. This pattern of “merit-based” rather than either universal or need-based student assistance is adopted most often in Central and Eastern Europe. Lithuania does not track performance on state matura examinations by student background characteristics, thus precise conclusions about the impact of student social background on higher education access are not possible. In meetings with education stakeholders it was acknowledged that students from the most advantaged family backgrounds and those who studied at the highest-performing secondary schools are likely to achieve the highest state matura scores. As MoES has noted, “it is evident that state matura examination results are much better at gymnasiums than secondary schools, urban schools do better than rural schools, and large schools do better than small ones” (MoES, 2016).
- I. Consolidate tertiary institutions for efficiency and quality 1. Adopt a flexible and pragmatic approach to consolidation. Consider all options available to the nation – consolidation among universities, between universities and colleges, and between universities and research centres. 2. Help institutions take full advantage of the opportunities that consolidation provides. Strengthen their strategic management capabilities so they can identify redundancies, new opportunities for research and teaching that are made possible by consolidation, and new ways of working with community and commercial partners. 3. Give special attention and support to redeployment, retraining and redundancy options to staff affected by consolidation, since merging institutions in a way that achieves long-term cost efficiencies will result in reductions to staffing. 4. Complement consolidation by linking research funding more fully to scientific performance. II. Balance attractiveness and quality in internationalisation Provide foreign students adequate information prior to enrolment, and assurance of quality after enrolment. Provide prospective students with web-based information about institutional characteristics closely associated with quality, such as graduation rates among the institution’s students. Focus on the quality of provision for foreign students as part of the quality assurance process, scrutinizing study programmes that are being offered in a foreign language. 2. Align institutional incentives to recruit foreign students with national priorities for research and innovation. Make the enrolment of foreign students in priority national research programmes an element in performance-based funding on HEIs. 3. Provide a legal and tax framework that helps universities to attract foreign researchers. Ensure there is a clear legal basis for universities to establish non-profit foundations that can recruit, compensate, and support researchers. Use tax policy or other incentives to encourage business-university collaboration that supports the recruitment of international researchers. III. Monitor and support equity in tertiary education 1. Develop a tertiary education information management system that has the capacity to monitor the social profile of students taking the state matura examination, the profile of students obtaining publicly funded (and self-paid) seats, and the profiles of those commencing and completing first cycle (bachelor) courses. Monitor and report on secondary vocational students, identifying the proportion of students who qualify for tertiary entry, who begin tertiary studies, and who complete. Identify suitable policy targets or benchmarks for their success. Monitor which students are completing their studies and which are not, and provide the Ministry, the Quality Assurance Agency, and the Research and Higher Education Monitoring and Analysis Centre (MOSTA) with this information. Compare progression and completion among social scholarship recipients to that of students who are not in receipt of formula-based support, and monitor to assure that they are succeeding in their studies at rates that are broadly comparable to those of other student populations. 4. Revise student support to align with equity targets. Widen the scope social scholarships (now received by 4% of students), linking scholarships more broadly to family income, school characteristics, or community profile.
- To comprehensively raise the level of performance for all students, the Government and other education stakeholders across the country are encouraged to work towards: Clarifying and raising expectations of performance – by students, teachers, school leaders, and researchers – across the education system. Productive discussions, those that become embedded in guiding policy documents and the thinking of practitioners, need to identify a shared vision of good schools and good teaching, high quality vocational education, and successful college and university institutions. Aligning resources in support of raised performance expectations. If students are to learn to higher levels, resources must support this – including expanded learning time and a strengthened teacher workforce. In higher education discussions are underway about funding higher education institutions on the basis of performance agreements – which countries across the world have shown to be an effective way of aligning resources and performance. Strengthening performance monitoring and ensuring quality. Improvement requires careful attention to performance. Lithuania has established data systems and school assessments, but has not fully used these to improve teaching or leadership, or to assure quality. Linking existing education information systems to labour market information and making better use of assessment information are needed to raise performance, and greater attention to presently overlooked disadvantaged students is needed. Building institutional capacity to achieve high performance. National education policy makers in Lithuania sometimes lack the organisational and analytical capacity to play the convening and steering role for which they are responsible. Education institutions, such as universities, sometimes lack the capacity for self-management they need in a system providing wide autonomy. Strengthening the capacities of those who set policy and those who manage institutions should be a priority of government.