Education and Training Monitor 2023

1. The teaching profession

Teacher shortages are a longstanding issue and risk worsening in the future. About 36%¹ of all ECEC and school teachers were aged over 55 in 2021 and therefore likely to reach retirement age within the next 10 years. Even if Eurostat’s baseline projections indicate a 12% decline in the student population (0-16)² by 2030, it is expected that many retiring teachers will need to be replaced. In 2021, the Government Strategic Analysis Centre (STRATA, 2021) forecasted a shortage of 2 000-3 000 ECEC and school teachers by 2025, with the exact number depending on demographic trends, education policies and the socio-economic situation. In 2021, the country experienced shortages of primary teachers, Lithuanian and mathematics teachers. The number of ECEC teachers and support specialists was also insufficient, but the shortfall is expected to increase shortly when the implementation of the early childhood education and care (ECEC) reform, aimed at guaranteeing access to all children, and the inclusive education reform (Section 3) begin.

Teacher supply varies between subjects and geographical areas. In 2021, a significant shortage of primary education teachers was recorded in the Kaunas district, and a surplus in the Šilalė district. There was a relatively high supply of physical education and art teachers with few job offers for them. To improve the supply-demand matching, the Ministry for Education, Science and Sport launched in 2022 a job search platform that schools can use to register vacancies and teachers can use to look for a job. However, not all schools use it (National Audit Office, 2023). Despite a relatively high demand for teachers in rural areas, few accept positions there. The location of the school, the workload and the pay are among the top factors influencing the decision of teachers to accept a position. In 2021, fewer school teachers in rural areas (38%) had a full-time positions – and therefore a higher salary - than in urban areas (54%). The lower availability of full-time positions contributes to the limited teachers’ supply in rural areas.

Some steps have been taken to renew the teaching workforce. Although the rate increased by 4 pps since the 2015/2016 school year, in 2022/2023, only 11.4% of teachers had less than 2 years in service. In 2021, the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport made the qualification requirements for teachers more flexible to allow motivated professionals who do not have a teacher qualification to work as a teacher. In addition, as of 2021, targeted scholarships are being offered to pedagogy students specialising in the most in-demand subjects. However, the number of enrolments in pedagogy remained stable between 2021 and 2022 and few students (11.8%³) study the priority subjects, indicating that current incentives are not fully effective. In 2022, 66% of graduates of pedagogical studies became teachers, but only 20%⁴ of them went on to work in rural areas. In 2021, the government started offering scholarships to teaching students in their final year who sign in advance a three-year employment contract with a school or a municipality. However, only 2.8% of students (83)⁵ signed a contract in 2022.

Lithuania is working on making the teaching profession more attractive as set out in the 2021-2030 education development programme but challenges remain. ECEC and school teacher salaries have risen by 70%⁶ since 2019 due to the fixed salary model introduced in 2018 (European Commission, 2019) and other increases are expected in 2024. Salaries of ECEC staff have been increased to match those of school teachers. Increases are also expected for support specialists, with the aim of their salaries being 30% higher than the country's average salary by 2024. However, teacher salaries could differ significantly between schools as they depend on school location and size and on the decisions of individual school leaders⁷. The current salary progression is the lowest in the EU and career progression does not ensure substantial increases in salaries. The existing career system (European Commission, 2019 and 2022) contributes to the low interest of young graduates to choose teaching as a profession: it lacks a clear definition of responsibilities at each level; the evaluation process is carried out at school level without sufficient monitoring and evaluation; and career progression is very slow (NEA, 2020; NEA, 2021b). External assessments have shown that a higher qualification does not always ensure a higher quality of teaching, and large performance differences exist between teachers within the same category (NEA, 2020). Lithuania has been working to reform the career system and a proposal is expected by the end of the year.

In Lithuania, the development of teachers’ competences is not systematically planned and realised to improve teaching practices and students’ achievements. Initial teacher education and the continuous professional development system do not equip teachers with the competences needed (NEA, 2021b; National Audit Office, 2023). However, some steps have been taken to improve teaching quality and to address the most urgent needs (see Section 4). Teacher training programmes are being prepared in three priority areas: mathematics, basic skills and inclusion. Moreover, to respond to teacher demand (European Commission, 2019), Lithuania has been investing in improving teachers’ ICT competences at all levels of education including at tertiary level through the EdTech project (Box 2). Under the national recovery and resilience plan (RRP), at least 1 000 vocational education and training (VET) trainers will have to improve their competences by 2026. In 2022, VET trainers could apply for short-term visits to other VET schools for training and introduction to new technologies and equipment.

Some steps are being taken to create better working conditions for researchers and academic staff. The research profession is not attractive: many qualified researchers do not return to their universities after a period abroad; and uncompetitive salaries make it hard to attract researchers from abroad (STRATA, 2022). Lithuania is planning to define a researcher's career in line with their experience and achievements in scientific activity (young, recognised, experienced and leading researcher). The compulsory competences of researchers at each level will be determined by the Research Council. Guidelines for improving lecturers’ competences are also being developed. Making the academic career more attractive and improving the competences of academic staff would contribute to the overall objective of increasing the quality of research and study at the country's higher education institutions (see Section 5).

2. Early childhood education and care

Participation in early childhood education (ECE) continues to increase and is now approaching the EU average. In 2021, 92.1% of children between the age of 3 and the starting age of compulsory primary education participated in ECE compared with an EU average of 92.5%. Since 2013, their participation has increased by 8.7 pps. Participation rates increase with children’s age, and it is almost universal (94.6% vs 96.2% at EU level) for children over the age of 5. Further increases are expected due to planned measures to gradually extend ECEC accessibility as of September 2023 (European Commission, 2021). Similarly, the share of children up to 3 years-old in formal childcare or education has risen by 13.1⁸ since 2015. However, the rate stood at 22.8% in 2022, below both the EU average (48.6%) and the national target for 2030 (30.5%) (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Participation of children aged less than 3 in formal childcare or education and revised Barcelona targets

Tackling imbalances in ECEC participation and provision remains a priority. Although improving overall, participation remains lower in rural areas as shown by national data⁹ and for children from families at risk of poverty or social exclusion (European Commission, 2022). The Ministry plans to launch an information campaign on the added value of pre-school education to encourage parents – particularly those at social risk - to send their children to kindergartens. As of 2022, participation in ECEC is mandatory for children from families at social risk¹⁰. In 2020/2021, only 75 children from families at social risk between the age of 3 and 6 attended compulsory ECEC. Lithuania aims to increase this figure to 1 500 in 2024. In 2022, 660¹¹ children are attending compulsory ECEC. The lack of public places in urban areas remains a challenge, especially in Vilnius municipality and district where the number of pre-school children has been increasing since 2018 also due to internal migration (NEA, 2022; Unicef, 2021). In 2022-2027 Lithuania plans to invest in increasing participation in ECEC and improving access and quality. Part of this investment will be dedicated to the inclusion of vulnerable children. However, limited management capacities at municipal level (NEA, 2021a) may hold back these ambitions. To meet the objective of guaranteeing access to ECEC to all children (2-5 year-olds) by 2025, Lithuanian municipalities have planned to build 19 new kindergartens and renovate 144 existing educational institutions (NEA, 2022). Work on pre-school guidelines for the content of the programmes is under way.

3. School education

The Ministry has prepared a 2023-2030 plan to strengthen mathematics outcomes. The plan - prepared in consultation with experts - aims to improve the mathematics achievements of primary and secondary students and address the poor results in the 2022 final national standardised exams. The plan includes measures aimed at: (i) improving teaching and learning on the basis of scientific research and the development of new IT tools that better respond to students’ learning needs; (ii) providing additional teaching assistance to students with poor results; (iii) helping more teachers to update their mathematical and assessment competences. These actions will be accompanied by measures designed at municipal and school level. The new curriculum, to be implemented as from 2023/2024, will devote more time to mathematics in primary school. In spring, the Ministry also launched an expert group to identify ways to increase students’ interests in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and maths) competences and careers. With the help of EU funds, since 2022, seven regional STEAM centres are operating in Lithuania and another three are being developed in the three biggest cities. In these laboratories, students can carry out a variety of research work and further improve their STEAM competences.

14% of fifth¹² graders are low achievers in reading literacy according to the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2021. While both boys and girls perform above the PIRLS international point of reference of 500 score points, girls outperform boys by 21 points (European Commission, 2023), a significant gender gap that tends to increase at higher grades as indicated by PISA 2018 (OECD, 2019b). According to PIRLS 2021, reading performance is negatively associated with exposure to bullying: About 13% of Lithuanian fifth-graders report being bullied weekly and they score 66 points – one of the highest decreases among the EU - lower than those who report not being bullied (Figure 2). This association was also highlighted by PISA 2018 for 15-year-olds (European Commission, 2021). Although early leaving from education and training is traditionally not an issue and the rate stood at 4.8% in 2022, well below the EU average (9.6%), this positive result may be at risk in the longer term. According to PIRLS 2021, 18.6% of fifth-graders feel that they do not belong at school and this may contribute to low school attendance (OECD, 2019c) and school drop-out. In May, an amendment to the Education Law, introducing a new policy to ensure higher school attendance, was approved.

Figure 2: Frequency of being bullied and its association with reading performance, PIRLS 2021

Work is under way to ensure that children with special educational needs have access to mainstream schools. As stipulated by a 2021 amendment to the Education Law, the Ministry of Education, Sport and Science has selected eight existing special schools to become regional special education centres and provide from 2024 support to schools in the whole country. The centres have been chosen based on geographical location, competences of support specialists and activities already provided. They will continue to provide education to children with high and very high special educational needs. They will also provide training to strengthen the competences of pedagogical staff and teachers in mainstream schools, offer methodological assistance and assistance to parents. In 2022/2023, teachers, support specialists and municipal consultants were provided with some training. Additional funds have been allocated to municipalities to hire more specialists. In the 2023/2024 school year, 100 pilot classes will test inclusive models. There are currently significant differences between schools in terms of inclusive education and infrastructure, and the lack of well-prepared staff is also an issue.

4. Vocational education and training

Lithuania continues to work to make VET more attractive and labour-market relevant. While showing a slight increase since 2020, enrolment in upper-secondary VET remains substantially below the EU average in 2021 (25.6%¹³ vs 48.7%) and so does the exposure of VET graduates (ISCED 3 and 4) to work-based learning during their studies (46.7%¹⁴ vs 60.1%, 2022). Recent Lithuanian VET graduates (ISCED 3 and 4) are less likely to be in employment (71.6%¹⁵) than higher education graduates (91.2%) – one of the highest gaps in the EU in 2022 (19.6 vs 7.0 pps).

As of 2022, with RRF support, Lithuania has been working to strengthen apprenticeship to make the transition from school to employment smoother.Apprentices are given opportunities to acquire skills that are more relevant for the labour market while working, and employers benefit from employees that are better able to respond their needs. Currently, apprentices only represent 5.2% of total VET students¹⁶ because small and medium sized business tend not to invest in apprenticeship due to costs. The EU funding will ease the costs borne by employers and co-finance the salaries of the apprentices. Work on updating the content of VET programmes and on professional standards continues, with the involvement of social partners and other stakeholders via the Platform for the Progress of VET set up in 2022 (European Commission, 2022).

The admission system to vocational schools has been reformed to increase the employability of VET graduates. As of 2023/2024, vocational schools will have more autonomy in deciding how many students they admit to VET programmes. This change aims to make VET programmes more responsive to regional labour market needs and to increase the involvement of regional employers in the planning of admissions. The Ministry will only provide funding for the total number of state-funded places by area of education and region.

5. Tertiary education

The reorganisation of the network of colleges has started. Lithuania has one of the EU's highest tertiary education attainment rates for people aged 25-34 (58.2% vs 42.0%, 2022), but quality and labour-market relevance remain a challenge. As part of its current reforms (European Commission, 2022), the government aims to promote the development of a more efficient and effective institutional landscape to respond to the decline in the enrolment rates - in particular in colleges¹⁷ - due to demographic changes and the demand for a higher quality of studies and research. While colleges vary considerably in size and focus, only 47% (Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, 2023) of college graduates find jobs to match their level of education. Colleges attract and employ only low shares of full-time academic staff¹⁸, and they all lack the capacity to contribute significantly to Lithuania’s research and innovation activity (OECD, 2023). The RRP includes measures to incentivise a reorganisation of the country's colleges that provide professional oriented programmes at ISCED 6 level traditionally and at ISCED 5 level as of 2022. By refining missions, creating a performance-based funding scheme (European Commission, 2022) and requiring colleges to carry out applied research for the first time, the RRP aims to encourage RRF-funded college mergers so that these institutions can tailor programmes to local needs and train skilled professionals. Colleges with good research results will be able to offer professional master's studies (ISCED 7) - currently unavailable in Lithuania – and could use also the title of 'university of applied sciences'. The goal is to have at least 1 200 students enrolled in state colleges by 2029; to have at least 76% of graduates find a job matching their qualifications within 12 months of graduating; and to have at least 50% of academic staff working full-time. From 2029, funding of colleges and applied science universities will depend on the expert assessment of applied R&D. State colleges presented their proposal for mergers and reorganisation in April 2023. In July, the government approved draft measures for the implementation of the plan submitted by the Ministry. Lithuania aims to renew the network by the beginning of the 2024/2025 academic year.

College mergers will not automatically result in cost savings and higher quality. To achieve these goals, merging institutions should complement one another in terms of programmes and (financial, infrastructure and human) resources (Rocha et al., 2018; Ripoll-Soler, 2019). Moreover, the development of applied research appears challenging as it should happen quickly and requires adequate funding and human resources – mainly new researchers in practice-oriented research - to achieve the 2029 goals. The share of academic staff working part-time is currently relatively high in colleges (OECD, 2023), and better employment conditions and an incentivising career model for these researchers may help make this career more attractive. Promoting applied research also requires a recognition of these activities - and the kinds of impact they are intended to achieve - in the design of research evaluation and staff appraisal systems (OECD, 2023) other than those used in universities. Lithuania is currently working on the evaluation procedure for applied research and a pilot evaluation will be carried out at the end of 2023. At the same, the reorganisation of colleges and setting up of universities of applied sciences, the launch of short-cycle programmes at ISCED 5 level in 2022 and the parallel reforms in vocational schools (see Section 5) require the creation of clear pathways between the different levels of education and more professional oriented programmes, to avoid overlaps and ensure that the reform of the tertiary education network is effective and brings about efficiency gains.

Currently, there is no specific legal basis in Lithuania for using micro-credentials. The use of micro-credentials is accepted and their validation is based on the quality assurance system and accreditation process of the higher education institutions offering the module or programme. As a rule, when developing and approving a micro-credential module or programme, a university should follow the same procedure as for any formal educational programme. The lack of a coherent and comprehensive framework results in confusing ways of granting and assessing micro-credentials, reducing the potential that this tool may have in addressing skills shortages.

6. Adult learning

Participation in adult learning is relatively low. In Lithuania, 8.5% of adults aged 25-64 participated in lifelong learning in 2022 (EU: 11.9%)¹⁹. A survey carried out by STRATA in 2020 highlighted that the culture of lifelong learning is weak and continuous learning has not yet become the norm. About 30% of the (25-64) population would not be willing to learn even if all the conditions and opportunities are in place (STRATA, 2020). Interest in continuous learning could increase if the quality of teaching were to improve. Currently, non-formal adult teaching does not require specific qualifications and trainers do not have the right to continuous professional development.

Participation in non-formal education is supported by EU funds. In 2020-2023, 30 out of 60 municipalities participated in a European Social Fund project aimed at strengthening the development of general competences through non-formal education programmes (budget: EUR 9.1 million). The project resulted in more than 50 non-formal adult education programmes and the training of 3 200 individuals. As part of its RRP, Lithuania launched a learning support scheme to benefit around 15 000 people seeking to obtain high value added qualifications and competences by 2026.

The Law on Non-formal Adult Education and Continuous Learning has been amended. The amendments aimed to reform the lifelong learning model consolidating the fragmented framework for skills development through an electronic system on the basis of individual learning accounts (ILAs). The description of the system of ILAs was approved in May 2023 and it is planned to be operational by the end of 2023. The development of the electronic system will allow users not only to find information on learning opportunities, but also to register directly in the programmes, and to provide a clear communication tool on the measures proposed by the State to develop competences. Better communication on the lifelong learning activities may also help increase awareness of the importance of further learning and increase its attractiveness. Lithuania also continues to work on increasing the variety of adult education programmes and modules in higher education institutions and other organisations.