Foreword

With one of the highest rates of young people attaining upper secondary education across the OECD, Lithuania and its young people clearly place high value, and invest significantly, in this level of education. Yet, the country and its young people achieve only modest returns on their investment. In Lithuania, the contribution of completing upper secondary education for young people’s skills is one of the lowest across the OECD.

This report was developed by the OECD Above and Beyond: Transitions in Upper Secondary Education project at the request of the Lithuanian National Agency for Education (Nacionalinė švietimo agentūra). It provides options to support the country’s national reforms to strengthen upper secondary education so that it contributes strongly to the learning, agency and employment outcomes of young people.

One of the report’s main messages is the criticality of purposefully designed diverse upper secondary pathways that promote deeper skills acquisition. Diverse pathways are reflected in the different choices that individual learners make about how they balance general and occupationally-relevant skills, the subjects they take and the domains in which they specialise. The report suggests how guided support for learners to make informed choices across diverse pathways can help them to define their interests, understand their strengths and provide the national economy with a broad skill mix. The report pays particular attention to vocational education in Lithuania, given national concerns around its prestige and enrolment. The report suggests how vocational education can provide more options and diversity enabling students to acquire specialised, technical skills that are valued for their contributions to the economy.

As the certification of student achievement after 10 years of schooling and the passport to tertiary education, the Matura is highly influential in Lithuania. More than a decade after the Matura radically changed teaching and learning at the end of upper secondary education when it was first introduced, the report suggests how Lithuania can put in place a cycle of continual renewal supported by review and research. Central to developing a Matura that remains fit-for-purpose over time will be providing adequate investment in independent, technical assessment expertise.

The authors of the report thank all the political leaders, policy officials, teachers, students, academics, researchers and non-government bodies that shared their time and insights in the development of this report. It provides a vision for upper secondary education in Lithuania so that each young person is supported to develop their unique strengths and talents.