Strengthening Upper Secondary Education in Lithuania
This report explores how Lithuania, and its young people can achieve higher returns on its investment in upper secondary education and provides Lithuania with policy recommendations to help improve it by strengthening vocational education pathways and by consolidating upper secondary certification.
| Formato: | Libro electrónico |
|---|---|
| Idioma: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
Paris :
Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development
2023.
|
| Edición: | 1st ed |
| Ver en Biblioteca Universitat Ramon Llull: | https://discovery.url.edu/permalink/34CSUC_URL/1im36ta/alma991009786727106719 |
Tabla de Contenidos:
- Intro
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations and acronyms
- Executive summary
- Strengthening vocational education and training pathways in upper secondary education in Lithuania (Chapter 3)
- Consolidating Lithuania's upper secondary certification to meet learners' diverse needs and promote higher order, complex learning (Chapter 4)
- 1 Assessment and Recommendations
- Introduction
- Main trends in upper secondary education in Lithuania
- Participation and completion
- Attainment of upper secondary education is very high
- Participation in upper secondary education is very high, supported by smooth transitions into and through upper secondary education
- Participation in upper secondary vocational education is lower than national targets
- Completion of upper secondary education is high but lower for VET programmes
- The gender gap in participation and completion of upper secondary vocational education is more pronounced than across the OECD on average
- Learning outcomes
- On entry to upper secondary education, 15-year-olds in Lithuania score below the OECD average
- The gap in performance between boys and girls and between students from rural and urban areas is greater in Lithuania than across the OECD
- Adults in Lithuania score above the OECD average
- Upper secondary education, especially VET, seems to play a modest role in contributing to adult skills
- Transitions into further education and work
- Transitions into tertiary education are high, but only for general upper secondary graduates
- Employments outcomes are very positive for tertiary graduates, but less so for VET graduates
- Priority areas for upper secondary education in Lithuania
- Lithuania achieves limited returns on its investment in upper secondary education.
- Upper secondary education requires purposefully designed pathways that promote deeper skills acquisition
- Investing in assessment expertise is essential for a national certification to continually adapt to the needs of education and society
- Strengthening pathways in upper secondary education
- Issue 1: Reviewing students' transitions and orientation into upper secondary education
- Issue 2: Creating valued vocational pathways through upper secondary education
- Issue 3: Designing pathways with clear and sequential progression out of upper secondary education
- Consolidating Lithuania's upper secondary certification to meet learners' diverse needs and promote higher-order, complex learning
- Issue 1. Supporting continual improvement and high-quality assessment
- Issue 2. Introducing alternative types of assessment
- Issue 3. Providing more flexible choices and options within the Matura
- References
- 2 The Context of Upper Secondary Education in Lithuania
- Introduction
- Socio-economic context
- Economic growth has been relatively strong over the past the decade
- Structural unemployment remains a persistent challenge
- Skills mismatch is considerable
- Poverty remains a challenge, especially in remote areas
- The structure of upper secondary education
- Upper secondary education is comparatively short and no part of it is compulsory
- All upper secondary graduates have access to tertiary programmes at ISCED 6
- The first official selection point is at 14 but in practice, this applies to less than 2% of students
- Selection for the vast majority of students occurs at 17, as they transition into upper secondary education
- Entrance into upper secondary education in Lithuania is currently automatic and entirely based on student preferences (but this is planned to change)
- Governance and funding.
- General and vocational schools have separate governance
- Overall spending on education is low compared to the OECD average but higher for upper secondary education
- Participation in upper secondary education
- Attainment of upper secondary education is very high
- Participation in upper secondary education is high
- Transitions through upper secondary are comparatively smooth
- Participation in upper secondary vocational education is lower than national targets
- Completion of upper secondary education is high but lower for VET programmes
- The gender gap in participation and completion of upper secondary education is slightly more pronounced than across the OECD on average
- Teaching, learning and the curriculum in upper secondary education
- Lithuania is implementing a new competency-based curriculum in general education
- The upper secondary curriculum aims to promote breadth of student choice
- There are two types of teachers at the upper secondary level in Lithuania: general and vocational teachers
- Certification at the end of upper secondary education in Lithuania
- The Matura determines upper secondary certification and tertiary entrance
- There is no separate certification for upper secondary vocational students
- Certification at the end of upper secondary education is not currently promoting student engagement or the acquisition of higher order skills
- Learning outcomes in upper secondary education
- On entry to upper secondary education, 15-year-olds in Lithuania score below the OECD average
- Girls outperform boys in both reading and mathematics
- The socio-economic gap between regions puts students from rural areas at a disadvantage
- Adults in Lithuania score above the OECD average
- Upper secondary education seems to play little role in contributing to adult skills
- VET graduates have low skill levels.
- Transitions into further education and employment
- Many upper general secondary graduates transition into tertiary education
- Few vocational upper secondary graduates progress into tertiary education
- Until recently, VET students have had limited post-secondary options
- An upper secondary vocational qualification provides little advantage on the labour market
- References
- Notes
- 3 Strengthening pathways in upper secondary education
- Introduction
- Issue 1: Reviewing students' transitions and orientation into upper secondary education
- The current context: transitions into upper secondary education
- Entrance into upper secondary education in Lithuania is currently automatic and entirely based on student preferences
- Most students currently experience a "smooth" transition into upper secondary education
- A smooth transition supports students to stay in education and complete upper secondary education
- Less than a quarter of students aged 15-19 transition into vocational upper secondary education in Lithuania
- Indicators of learning outcomes show that almost a quarter of students lack basic competencies upon entry into upper secondary education
- The contribution of upper secondary education to young adults' skills is modest
- From 2024, entrance into upper secondary education will depend on examination results
- The structure of lower and upper secondary education discourages enrolments in vocational education
- Students in Lithuania lack guidance and support to help them identify the most appropriate upper secondary programme
- Lithuania is introducing guidance counsellors from Grade 1
- VET is not perceived to be a rigorous learning option
- Policy options for student transitions and orientation into upper secondary education.
- Option 1.a. Making personalised transition recommendations for each student based on a wide range of information
- Monitoring student learning outcomes as they transition into upper secondary education
- Carefully considering how the new threshold can influence transitions and how it can be used to provide additional support
- Reconsidering the sources of information for transition decisions
- Considering how information is combined to develop a personalised recommendation for each student
- Counsellors should be external from the school and provide a non-binding recommendation
- Option 1.b. Ensuring that students and their guardians play an informed role in transition decisions
- Developing career-related learning from an early stage to promote subject and career exploration
- Ensuring that students and their families are supported through accessible, transparent, and up-to-date information
- Option 1.c. Reconsidering the structure of schooling to facilitate transitions into upper secondary education
- Exploring options to provide some VET in general schools
- Promoting co-operation between general and vocational schools
- Considering restructuring the education system to facilitate students' transitions
- Issue 2: Creating valued vocational pathways through upper secondary education
- The Current context: upper secondary vocational pathways
- The general content for VET students is not tailored to their interests or needs
- VET students have to meet the same requirements as general students for upper secondary certification and eligibility for tertiary education
- The new system provides more flexibility and choice for vocational students
- Upper secondary vocational students might not have an incentive to stay in school to complete their vocational programme
- Few VET students achieve a solid basis in foundational general skills.
- Vocational graduates are not well prepared in vocational content.
