Autonomy of Schools and Quality of Education in Lithuania

Abstract

This article discusses the relationship between autonomy of schools and quality of education. The results of the Lithuanian students who participated in the international PISA 2012 study were officially announced by the end of 2013. According to the presented report, they were rather mediocre. Lithuanian 15 year-old students were 30th in science, 37th in mathematics and 39th in reading among the 65 countries and territories which participated in the study. Countries and territories of South East Asia – Shanghai, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore – were on the top of the ratings. On the other hand, among the European nations the two Nordic countries – Finland and Estonia – seemed to show the best results. Some authors tend to explain the success of these countries by indicating the rational character of the Nordic people or the successful implementation of the welfare state model. However, other Nordic countries – Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland – showed results similar to those of Lithuania. A number of other authors, e. g., Pasi Sahlberg, claim that the outstanding results of Finland were achieved due to the high professionalism of teachers and wide autonomy of the Finnish schools. In many aspects Estonia follows the Finnish example, in particular, by ensuring the wider autonomy of schools. However,
in Lithuania, according to our judgment, situation is rather different. The opinion surveys of school principals conducted in 1996, 2001 and 2009 show that majority of secondary heads consider Lithuanian education system as being too much centralized and think that school leaders should gain more decision-making powers. Analysis of key national educational documents, e. g. Education Acts and long-term educational strategies, show that there are no observable tendencies of striving towards greater autonomy of schools. If the assumption that greater school autonomy leads to a better quality of education is true, Lithuania has no reason to expect any major improvement in student achievements in the nearest future.