Early Childhood and Care in Europe: Tackling Social and Cultural Inequalities

Country Descriptions

Country description

EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE IN EUROPE: TACKLING SOCIAL AND CULTURAL INEQUALITY

LITHUANIA In Lithuania early childhood education and care embraces children of the age from one to seven and is an integrate part of the education system. According to Lithuanian education classification, it belongs to the zero level of education. Though defined as pre-school education yet this stage is composed of two parts – pre-school education of children of the age from one to five or six (lopšelis- darželis, darželis), and pre-primary education of children from five or six to seven years old (priešmokyklinio ugdymo grupės). Each of these two parts serves a different purpose.

The purpose of pre-school education is to help children satisfy their inherent, cultural, including ethnic, social, and cognitive needs.

The purpose of pre-primary education is to help children prepare for successful schooling according to the curriculum of primary education.

The two parts of education system share common features, both pre-school and pre-primary education represent a blend of teaching and social services therefore the education of children, either the ones taking pre-school or pre-primary curricula, embraces education development and care for all the needs of the child. Both pre-school and pre-primary education curricula are focused on building foundations and fostering five competencies: healthcare, communicative, cognitive, social, and artistic competence. The programmes are tailored to provide maximum adjustment of content to the individual children’s learning needs, e.g., assignments and learning activity are structured with regard of the child’s experience, abilities, home setting, language, culture, religion, etc.

Pre-school and pre-primary education is not compulsory and takes place at home, or, if parents or foster parents want so, their child receives education according to pre-school or pre-primary curriculum provided by nurseries-, kindergartens, schools-kindergartens or pre-school education section of general education schools.

Provision of pre-school and pre-primary education is an independent function of municipalities; therefore, the degree of accessibility and quality level may show considerable variation across different municipalities. To give an example, more than 1/5 of all Lithuanian pre-school education establishments are situated in and over 20 percent of Vilnius children of the age from one to three participate in the programmes run by these establishments, in the age group from three to six this number is 70 percent. Whereas in rural areas the participation rate in pre-school education programmes is only 0.2 percent of children of the age from one to three years and 26 percent from three to six.

Despite the fact that early childhood education and care in Lithuania is based on the most general principles of equal opportunities, democracy, continuity and integrative approach, there are children in Lithuania who fall into risk groups and whose early childhood education and care necessitates increased attention from the state and the local governance.

The national documents define and group such at-risk children in Lithuania as children of families of social risk or in social exclusion, children of parents with restricted parental rights, orphans, children residing in rural areas, children of migrating workers and immigrants and children of national minorities (e.g. Roma children).

In order to create equal integration opportunities and transition to compulsory education system to all children, political and practical measures are implemented on the state and local levels: applicable laws provide for higher attention to education, care and protection of children facing social risk. In the

1 Country description Lithuania scheme of public financial support to municipalities, prioritised are the activities ensuring higher participation of children at-risk in pre-school and pre-primary education and additional social or education services such as free meals, instruction of the state language, providing a lift to educational facility, and family involvement. Moreover, Lithuania provides specialist training for dealing with children at risk.

Early childhood education accessibility and quality Lithuania has a long tradition of institutional early childhood education, on the other hand, the belief in keeping children at home as long as possible is also strong. A parent or foster-parent is paid a benefit equivalent to his/her full salary (subject to a ceiling) until the child is 1 year old, and 85 % of his/her salary until the child reaches the age of 2. In addition, fathers are entitled to a benefit equivalent to 100 % salary for one month's leave after the child is born.

A regulation adopted by the Ministry of Education and Science also encourages families to educate their children at home, by entitling them to educational support. Such support includes information on pre-school education and pedagogical counselling in various forms.

Pre-school education according to pre-school curriculum is provided only for children not younger than one year. The Education Law provides for alternatives to following the pre-school and pre-primary curricula – the family with the child who does not use services by the educational establishment is entitled to assistance in the order established by the Government or its authorised institution. In 2006, 19.3 percent of children of the age from one to three participated in pre-school education programmes and 64.2 percent of children from three to six years old.

The analysis of social background of the families who participated in pre-school and pre-primary education, demonstrates that families that fall into the one of risk categories as described above show tend keeping children at home until the start of compulsory schooling. On the other hand, the research focused on the learning achievements of children in their fourth grade, has revealed a direct correlation between learning achievements and home environment, and that the achievements of pupils from at-risk families and those who did not participate in pre-school and pre-primary groups are considerably lower.

Currently there are measures implemented at the national level to encourage at-risk children participation in pre-school and pre-primary education. Listed are the main of such measures: a) The implementation of Provisions of the State Education Strategy for 2003-2012. The strategy established the priority of developing pre-school and pre-primary education infrastructure in rural areas and adjusting educational facilities to children from birth to the age of three. A drafted Programme of Pre-school and Pre-primary Education Development in 2007-2012 provides for decentralization and liberalization of pre-school education, flexibility and formats of provision better adjusted to family needs (e.g., several hours per day, several days per week, weekend and other types). The draft introduces models of complex services provided simultaneously to the child and family (e.g., pre- school curriculum coupled with different informal programmes: language instruction, computer literacy, and similar, also pedagogical counselling on child education). The draft programme includes measures directed at fostering of administrative and managerial skills of municipality administrative staff in order to facilitate more expedient establishment of pre-school and pre-primary education needs and prioritizing leading to diversification of forms of provision in response to the needs of different families. b) Currently in a draft, Model for Bettering Children’s Living and Education Conditions from Birth till Compulsory School Age will be applied to tackling problems of children in families at social risk or in social exclusion from 2008. The model founded on inter-agency cooperation will enable earlier identification of children at-risk and their inclusion, in the order of priority, into schemes of pre-school

2 Country description Lithuania and pre-primary education and care, together with complex assistance to the family (social, psychological, health care, etc.). c) The National Minority Integration into Lithuanian Society Programme for 2005-2010 is being implemented. Children for migrant workers and immigrant families are provided purposive language training and their social and cultural integration programmes. A separate national project is dedicated to the social, cultural and educational integration of the Roma children. Under the project, provision for pre-school and pre-primary children takes place alongside informal adult education.

Pre-school and pre-primary education in Lithuania is an independent municipal function, therefore multiple measures related to at-risk children are implemented by municipalities. There are plans in the period of 2007-2013 to commit for that purpose the support of the European Structural funds.

Pre-school and pre-primary education services in Lithuania are provided mostly in state-run pre-school establishments or general education schools. Such establishments are open five days a week. Their daily working time is 10.5 hours.

Pre-school and pre-primary education, care and minding for at- risk children and children in social exclusion are provided five days a week, 24 hours a day.

At the national level the quality of pre-school and pre-primary education is ensured through the following regulations: • Established maximum group size per adult, hygiene and safe environment requirements. The number of children in the group from birth to one and a half year cannot exceed 10, in the groups from one and a half to three years – 15, and from three to seven years – 20 children. • Prior to 1 September 2007, all pre-school education establishments taught two alternative national pre-school curricula. Starting with 1 September 2007 all education institutions providing pre-school education start offering their own pre-school curricula which must meet the criteria established by the Minister of Education and Science; • Pre-primary education establishments teach the General Pre-Primary Education Programme and apply Pre-Primary Education Standards; • A pre-school education programme provider is a pre-school teacher with advanced vocational or higher education who meets the requirements for pre-school teachers established by the Minister of Education and Science. A pre-primary education provider is a pre-primary teacher with advanced vocational or higher education who meets the requirements for pre-school or/and primary teachers established by the Minister of Education and Science. The training needed for such qualifications lasts from three to four years; • Professional development (five days yearly) is mandatory for pre-school and pre-primary teachers as is also teacher attestation taking place every five years and representing the assessment of teacher’s practice according criteria set by the Minister of Education and Science. The attestation is also the procedure for granting a respective qualification category, that of senior teacher, teacher methodologist or teacher expert. • Psychologists, pedagogues, teachers of languages and music, social pedagogues, nurses, kinesics therapists and other specialists are encouraged to work for pre- school and pre-primary establishments.

3 Country description Lithuania

Funding Pre-school education is funded from the municipal budgets, parents’ payments and by other legal supporters. The main funding is earmarked from the municipal budget and represents ¾ of all expenses. Municipalities pay salaries of teaching and other staff, run the educational establishment (building maintenance, communication expenses, repairs, procurement of equipment and furniture) finance professional development and other needs.

Parents in most cases pay for children’s meals and learning aids, what represents ¼ of pre-school education expenses. Lone parent families, families where the father is conscripted and student families are granted a 50 % reduction of fees.

Municipalities yearly earmark a certain amount in their budget for the development of at-risk children, because families falling into some of the risk groups are entitled, at the national level, to the privilege of lower pay for child’s subsistence at the or receive all services free of pay.

The founder (municipality) may introduce additional privileges or additional payments to parents in case they require additional education services to their children. Pre-primary education, by contrast, is partially financed from the state budget (this part represents 1/3 of provision expenses) alongside municipal budget, parents’ payments and legal supporters. The principle of earmarking funding per individual pupil applies at the pre-primary stage, that is, targeted funding is allocated to municipalities to set up the provision of pre-primary education.

Monitoring Provision of pre-school and pre-primary education being the independent municipal function, the national level statistics provides only general figures reflecting the provision of pre-school and pre- primary education.

Taking account of huge differences between towns and rural areas and between social groups, the Pre-school and Pre-primary Education Development Programme for 2007-2012 is going to include measures that will provide for the creation of indicators for pre-school and pre-primary education. The indicators will be used to conduct monitoring of pre-school and pre-primary education every three years and the results will serve as the basis for political measures tailored to the bettering of situation.

Country description written by Gražina Šeibokienė under the responsibility of the Eurydice National Unit.

Unrevised English.

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