Under the Law on Education (Švietimo įstatymas), the quality of education is the responsibility of the education provider and the institution implementing the rights and obligations of the owner. The state ensures the quality of formal education. The state partly ensures the quality of pre-school and pre-primary education.

Improvement of education quality is achieved through education monitoring, testing, self-evaluation and school external evaluation, appraisal of teachers and education support specialists, and assessment of learning outcomes. School heads submit the annual activity report to the school community and the council for consideration.

Pre-school and pre-primary education

Responsible bodies

The municipalities are responsible for organising the provision of pre-school education. They, as institutions implementing the rights and obligations of the owner, provide pre-school education programmes prepared by the education institution[1]. Each institution develops its own pre-school programme.

The General Curriculum for Pre-primary Education (Priešmokyklinio ugdymo bendroji programa) is a nationally approved programme that is followed by all pre-primary education providers.

As there is no procedure for external evaluation of pre-school education institutions at the state level, some municipalities have approved the descriptions of the procedure for evaluation of their non-formal education schools (as well as pre-school and pre-primary education institutions). It is up to each municipality to determine the role it will play in the external evaluation of the institution.

Municipalities, as institutions implementing the rights and obligations of the owner, organise or (through their internal audit departments) perform audits and thematic inspections of educational institutions.

Schools can carry out a self-evaluation of their activities. The school council chooses the areas of activity for school self-evaluation and also the methodology for conducting it. It analyses the results of the self-evaluation and makes decisions on performance improvement.

Approaches and methods for quality assurance

External evaluation

Until 2022 the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport is committed to establishing a system for the external evaluation of pre-school education institutions[2]. Municipalities may have approved the procedure for external evaluation of their institutions. On 27 September 2018 the National Audit Office, in a performance audit report Do we use the Pre-school Education Opportunities to Ensure a More Successful Future for Children, showed that 30% of the country’s municipalities[3] have approved the descriptions of the procedure for external evaluation of non-formal education schools. Only 5 out of 60 municipalities carried out external evaluations of several pre-school education institutions during the audited period.

Self-evaluation

The self-evaluation of the pre-school education school is carried out according to the 2005 approved pre-school school internal audit methodology (Ikimokyklinio ugdymo mokyklos vidaus audito metodika). The purpose of the methodology is to help the school to develop a harmonised, consistent and flexible self-evaluation model of school activities, which would provide reliable data on the quality of school activities. The methodology is based on the application of an integrated system of performance indicators.

The following areas in school are assessed according to certain characteristics: ethos; the child’s education and self-education; the child’s educational achievements; support and assistance for the child and family; resources and school management. After evaluating these areas, advantages and disadvantages are identified. In the process of developing a school’s strategic plan and annual work programme, this helps the school’s community to make informed decisions about the school’s improvement directions and set the school’s improvement priorities.

It has been noticed that some schools, when evaluating their activities, use a tool for general education schools – Recommendations for Self-Evaluation of the Quality of Performance in General Education Schools (Mokyklos, įgyvendinančios bendrojo ugdymo programas, veiklos kokybės įsivertinimo metodika). More about this methodology can be found in the section on general education schools’ self-evaluation.

Teacher performance evaluation

Pre-school and pre-primary teachers’ activities are assessed through appraisal, as for general education teachers. More about appraisal and teachers’ qualification levels can be found in the general education section, teacher performance evaluation.

General education

Responsible bodies

The external evaluation of a general education school is initiated by the institution implementing the rights and obligations of the owner. The external evaluation of a general education school is carried out by the National Agency for Education (formerly the National Agency for School Evaluation) and its external evaluators. It is an institution operating at the national level, preparing national evaluators for the evaluation of schools throughout Lithuania. Evaluators assess the schools by using a single evaluation system.

General education schools perform self-evaluation themselves. The self-evaluation is initiated by the school head. The area of self-evaluation of the school's activities and the methodology of performance are chosen by the school council.

Approaches and methods for quality assurance

External evaluation

External evaluation aims to encourage schools to achieve better quality education, better student achievement and thus better school development. External evaluation of the school activities’ quality is a formative evaluation of the processes taking place in the school. The external evaluation is based on the self-evaluation carried out by the school.

The external evaluation may be:

• Broad (or overall) – all school activities are evaluated. It is implemented using a system of 25 indicators covering four areas of school activity – results; education, self-education and pupils’ experience; educational environments; leadership and management.
• Thematic – the school’s activities are evaluated by analysing the relevant topic (problem, question) established by the Minister of Education, Science and Sport. In this case, the indicators can be restructured according to the identified relevant topic (problem, question). Three areas of school activity are analysed: results; education, self-education and pupils’ experiences; leadership and management.
• Risks – identification, analysis and prediction of opportunities for improvement of school activities is carried out. Indicators of three school activity areas (results, support for pupils, education and self-education process) are analysed. One year after the risk assessment, the data obtained on the change in the quality of school activities and the results of the school head’s performance assessment are analysed. A re-evaluation will be organised after two years. A positive change in the school’s activity is established if more than half of the indicators are evaluated at a higher level during the re-evaluation.

The evaluation process begins with the school’s self-assessment. External evaluators familiarise themselves with the school’s self-assessment, then they visit the school and gather information. School evaluation focuses on monitoring the educational process (at least 75% of the evaluators work is at the school). Five evaluation levels are used to evaluate the school’s performance. The school communicates the findings of the external evaluation to students and their parents. After the evaluation, the school and its founder take care of the improvement of the activity. Consultants are used for the improvement of the activity.

The National Agency for Education together with the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport monitor and analyse the schools’ progress and the impact of school support following an external evaluation.

Schools are evaluated periodically, at least every 7 years.

Self-evaluation

General education school organises its self-evaluation according to the Recommendations for Self-Evaluation of the Quality of Performance in General Education Schools (Mokyklos, įgyvendinančios bendrojo ugdymo programas, veiklos kokybės įsivertinimo metodika). The school head can initiate the self-assessment. The school council chooses the methodology for the self-evaluation of performance. The self-assessment is performed by a group formed of school staff.

Areas of evaluation. School activities are assessed in the following areas: results; education, self-education and student experiences; educational environments; leadership and management. During the evaluation, these areas are detailed by topics, which are divided into indicators. School culture is not singled out as a separate area; its aspects are described in the areas that determine the results.

Methods of self-assessment:

• Broad (or overall) self-assessment. During this, depending on the type of school and its context, the school community evaluates all areas, topics and indicators. The results of the evaluation can serve as a starting point for a deeper thematic or problematic study.
• Thematic self-assessment. For a thematic self-assessment a field, topic or narrower aspect of the activity is selected to be explored in detail.
• Analysis of the problem encountered at school. The problem analysis begins with the identification of the problem that expresses the discrepancy between the current and the desired situation. The purpose of the problem analysis is to collect data revealing the causes of the dissatisfactory situation and, based on them, to present a solution to the problem.

Self-evaluation methods. During the self-assessment, reliable data is collected by choosing appropriate social research methods. It is recommended that the direct online system www.iqesonline.lt is used to collect and process data. Secondary data sources are also widely used for self-assessment of school performance: quantitative school monitoring data, pupils’ progress and learning achievement data, teacher and supervisor self-assessment and certification data, data from various surveys and research conducted at the school, etc.

Self-evaluation stages:

• Preparation phase. During this, certain aspects of self-evaluation and the method of self-assessment are selected.
• Preparation of a self-evaluation plan. This defines the school’s self-evaluation goals, expected participants and their functions, data sources, groups of respondents, specific indicators, intended data interpretation criteria. It prepares the evaluation process plan and provides details of who will use the evaluation results, and how.
• Preparation of the self-evaluation tool(s).
• Self-evaluation.
• Information phase. During this, a self-evaluation report on the quality of school activities is prepared.

The school community, the institution implementing the rights and obligations of the owner, and other interested parties are informed about the generalised self-evaluation results and improvement directions of the school activity quality. The specific data obtained during the self-assessment is confidential and belongs to school community. The school may provide the information to other people or institutions only with the consent of the school community.

Teacher performance evaluation

There are four categories of teacher qualifications – teacher, senior teacher, teacher methodologist and teacher expert.

A person who has attained a higher or advanced vocational education (special secondary education acquired prior to 1995) and an educational qualification is considered to be a teacher with a qualification category.

[1] Outline of Criteria for Pre-School Education Curricula (Dėl Ikimokyklinio ugdymo programų kriterijų aprašo), Minister for Education and Science, 2005 (2011 edition). 

[2] From 2018 to 2022 the National Agency for Education is implementing the project Improvement and Development of Non-formal Education, Pre-school, Pre-primary and General Education Evaluation, Self-evaluation (value EUR 2,023,000.00). At the end of the project, methodologies for self-evaluation and external evaluation of the quality of activities of pre-school and pre-primary schools will have to be developed and tested; the methodology of quality assurance of non-formal children‘s education and its providers will have to be enabled; developed assessment of competencies and activities of heads of educational institutions (except for higher education institutions) will have to be made; a model for evaluating the monitoring of the progress of schools implementing general education programmes will have to be developed; a virtual environment for external evaluation in the electronic space will have to be created and an online system for school self-evaluation and performance improvement will have to be developed.

[3] There are 60 municipalities in Lithuania.