OECD Review of Policies to Improve the Effectiveness of Resource Use in Schools (School Resources Review) COUNTRY BACKGROUND REPORT FOR LITHUANIA National Agency for School Evaluation May 2015 The OECD and the European Commission (EC) have established a partnership for the Project, whereby participation costs of countries that are part of the European Union’s Erasmus+ program are partly covered. The participation of Lithuania was organised with the support of the EC in the context of this partnership. This report was prepared by the Policy Analysis Unit of the National Agency for School Evaluation under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and Science of Lithuania as an input to the OECD Review of Policies to Improve the Effectiveness of Resource Use in Schools (School Resources Review). The document was prepared in response to guidelines the OECD provided to all countries. The opinions expressed are not those of the OECD or its Member countries. Further information about the OECD Review is available at http://www.oecd.org/education/schoolresourcesreview Data and information providers: Association of Local Authorities in Lithuania Centre of Information Technologies in Education Department of General Education and Vocational Training, Ministry of Education and Science Education Development Centre Education Supply Centre Education Quality and Regional Policy Department, Ministry of Education and Science Finance Department, Ministry of Education and Science National Examination Centre TABLE OF CONTENTS List of abbreviations ................................................................................................................................................... 4 Glossary and key concepts ......................................................................................................................................... 5 Executive Summary .................................................................................................................................................... 7 CHAPTER 1: THE NATIONAL CONTEXT ................................................................................................... 14 1.1 Economic and social background..................................................................................................... 14 1.2 Demographic development ............................................................................................................... 14 1.3 Political background ......................................................................................................................... 15 1.4 Public sector management ................................................................................................................ 16 CHAPTER 2: THE SCHOOL SYSTEM ............................................................................................................ 18 2.1 Organisation of the school system .................................................................................................... 18 2.2 Education environment ..................................................................................................................... 21 2.3 Objectives of the education system and student learning objectives ............................................ 24 2.4 Distribution of responsibilities within the school system ............................................................... 25 2.5 Market mechanisms in the school system ....................................................................................... 27 2.6 Performance of the school system .................................................................................................... 28 2.7 Policy approaches to equity in education ........................................................................................ 36 2.8 Main challenges ................................................................................................................................. 38 CHAPTER 3: GOVERNANCE OF RESOURCE USE IN SCHOOLS ...................................................... 39 3.1 Level of resources and policy concerns ........................................................................................... 39 3.2 Sources of revenue ............................................................................................................................. 42 3.3 Planning of resource use ................................................................................................................... 45 3.4 Implementation of policies to improve the effectiveness of resource use ..................................... 48 3.5 Main challenges ................................................................................................................................. 48 CHAPTER 4: RESOURCE DISTRIBUTION .................................................................................................. 50 4.1 Distribution of resources between levels of the education administration ................................... 50 4.2 Distribution of financial resources across resource types .............................................................. 52 4.3 Distribution of resources between levels and sectors of the school system .................................. 53 4.4 Distribution of resources across individual schools........................................................................ 55 4.5 Distribution of school facilities and materials ................................................................................. 57 4.6 Distribution of teacher resources ..................................................................................................... 65 4.7 Distribution of school leaders ........................................................................................................... 68 4.8 Distribution across specific student groups .................................................................................... 71 4.9 Main challenges ................................................................................................................................. 72 CHAPTER 5: RESOURCE UTILIZATION ..................................................................................................... 74 5.1 Matching resources to individual student learning needs ............................................................. 74 5.2 Organisation of student learning time ............................................................................................. 76 5.3 Allocation of teacher resources to students ..................................................................................... 79 5.4 Organisation of school leadership .................................................................................................... 85 5.5 Teaching and learning environment within school ........................................................................ 89 5.6 Use of school facilities and materials ............................................................................................... 92 5.7 Organisation of education governance ............................................................................................ 92 5.8 Main challenges ................................................................................................................................. 97 CHAPTER 6: RESOURCE MANAGEMENT.................................................................................................. 98 6.1 Capacity building for resource management .................................................................................. 98 6.2 Monitoring of resource use ............................................................................................................... 99 2 6.3 Transparency and reporting .......................................................................................................... 101 6.4 Incentives for effective resource use .............................................................................................. 102 6.5 Main challenges ............................................................................................................................... 103 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................................105 APPENDICES .........................................................................................................................................................111 Appendix 1. Long-term unemployment rate ....................................................................................... 111 Appendix 2. Esf-funded projects ......................................................................................................... 111 Appendix 3. Institutions of the state power ......................................................................................... 113 Appendix 4. The lithuanian classification of education ..................................................................... 114 Appendix 5. The school network .......................................................................................................... 115 Appendix 6. Data on household expenditure ...................................................................................... 117 Appendix 7. Structure of the ministry of education and science ....................................................... 119 Appendix 8. National institutions forquality assurance ....................................................................