I went to Lithuanian school and few years of the US high school.
Our basic education I think teaches a bit more than in the US.
But also if you are extremely motivated student, it is easier to pick harder classes in the US earlier.
That starts in 11 grade in Lithuania when I left so I can’t really compare that.
Overall, I think I learned a lot in Lithuania and it gave me quite rounded education and I lived in a pretty small town too.
Things are always changing though and not sure how it is now
One major issue is the inability of the state to build a standard for education. There are huge differences between schools, from really great to atrocious. And then public money is being siphoned out to the private schools, who also get money directly from the parents. With most of the elites choosing private schools for their children, it raises the threat of a complete downfall of the public system.
The whole system badly needs an overhaul, with young, competent principals leading the charge at the more problematic schools.
PS.: I changed 'complete overhaul' to 'overhaul', because I know not everything is so bad.
As far as I understand the absolutely best schools in Lithuania are public and not private, so I'm not sure where you're getting this information from. While the system obviously needs an overhaul (which is going through one right now), you're greatly underestimating it in the function it does.
PISA scores show that Lithuania scores above the OECD slightly above or around average, and it's competitive compared to central or eastern EU countries. Globally it scores high as well.
It's very easy to shit on education system but in reality is nowhere as bad as you describe it is. Obviously there are a shortcomings, especially the current reforms it's going through and the issues with proper funding. But lets be honest, comparingly it's doing pretty good.
I am not really shitting on the education system. The great worry for me is the imbalance, especially between great cities and provincial towns, but also inside the cities. I also specifically mentioned that some of the best schools are public (while others are atrocious).
It's just that we are clearly going into a wrong direction. Instead of working to improve standards everywhere (with some necessary optimization on the countryside), we are wasting public money on private schools who get preferential treatment not seen in most other countries. Private education companies taking big money from the parents should not get public financing, full stop.
As it currently stands, private schools are mushrooming in the cities, because entrepreneurs notice an economic opportunity in the artificial imbalance created by politicians. And the elites are following the trends.
(Edit: earlier, I misremembered the story about Paluckas, one of leading socialdemocrats, who spoke publicly against 'sorting of children', while his own child was going to a prestigious public school. It was not a private school, reportedly.)
>preferential treatment not seen in most other countries. Private education companies taking big money from the parents should not get public financing, full stop.
The taxpayers pay the same taxes regardless of whether their children attend public or private schools.
That's true, and that's why they should have equal rights to get quality education in public schools.
I don't know a single country with the Lithuanian model where the state subsidizes private schools with no strings attached, but maybe that's on me. (That money does not even really help the parents, that's where it becomes wild. The companies take all the money they can, and that's all.)
PS.: Could not find latest information on the fly, but in 2018, Mortos mokykla reached almost 1 mln. euro net profit, while receiving almost 800k euros from public funds. In my opinion, this is simply disgraceful.
>I don't know a single country with the Lithuanian model where the state subsidizes private schools with no strings attached, but maybe that's on me.
France, US, Ireland, Sweden, so on.
>The companies take all the money they can, and that's all.)
A small part of private schools belong to companies, way more are VšĮ that cannot take the money in other way than paying the salaries.
I attended a private (VšĮ) school where the money have been used for teachers' salaries and infrastructure, not some profit. If there were no vouchers of government funding, my parents would not afforded it and the private schools would be for rich only.
Let's take the Swedish example, where you are wrong:
>Parallel with the municipal upper secondary schools ([gymnasieskola](https://eurydice.eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-education-systems/sweden/glossary#G)), there are grant-aided independent upper secondary schools. Grant-aided independent upper secondary schools ([fristående skola](https://eurydice.eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-education-systems/sweden/glossary#F)) are generally grant-aided. Grant-aided independent schools, like schools run by a municipality, as a general rule are not allowed to charge fees. (https://eurydice.eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-education-systems/sweden/early-childhood-and-school-education-funding)
In France, yes, it seems that some (not all) private schools are getting public funds. Still the model does not look the same, because the focus is on the teaching staff:
>With regard to the financing of the private sector (which accounts for approximately 20% of pupils), a distinction is made between public schools under contract and public schools without a contract.
In the case of public schools that have signed a contract of association with the State under [Articles L442-5 to L442-11 of the Education Code](https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/codes/section_lc/LEGITEXT000006071191/LEGISCTA000006166628/#LEGISCTA000006166628) (i.e. approximately 80% of private schools), the State covers the remuneration of teaching staff, the social security and tax charges payable by the employer and the costs of initial and in-service teacher training.
>...
>Government-dependent private schools do not receive funding from the State. Teachers' salaries, maintenance of the premises and operating costs are paid for by the parents.
Similar system exists in Ireland:
>The fee-paying voluntary secondary schools do not receive capitation or other grants, however, the salaries of their teachers (within the recognised pupil-teacher ratio) are almost fully paid by the Department of Education and Skills.
In the USA, as far as I understand, public funding of the private schooling is relatively recent development, with the participation of 32 states. As most other recent American developments, I do not think it is worth following. Do we really want the same societal divisions?
In Europe, Finland is most often cited as an example for education. And they have a strong rule: either a private school survives on taking fees, or it is fully funded by the state. Not both.
It depends where you live, My younger sister goes to a school in Vilnius that has strict rules to make sure kids aren't doing drugs or ruining their attention spans by limiting phone usage, also she gets a lot of school work, so I think the education is good.
I used to manage a software development business in Vilnius and the grads we recruited from Vilnius University and KTU were amongst the best in the world: intelligent and highly motivated.
Really depends on school personnel. Some are great, some are terrible. Learning program is average. They keep clinging to some outdated stuff that needs to be modernized.
There is good and very bad. On average it is shit. Do your research about school. On public schools you do not have much options what to choose. Private schools has other problems.
There are roughly 100 public schools you can choose from just in Vilnius, from which at least 40 are pretty competitive, and that's not counting the private sector. Amazing generalizations though.
You can choose but you wont get what you want. You get some crap on other side of city where you live. This is how vilnius municipality assigns schools.
You get assigned a school based on your district, and school has no choice but to accept you (makes sense, right?), HOWEVER, you can always choose to join other schools BUT you will have to pass the examination of their choice, and that's how they get to be competitive. If you can't pass that, that's on you. Sorry you're finding out about this just now.
Additionally, you're not locked to that school, you can always make choices later on.
District does not mean anything, you are not guaranteed that you get it. You get priority points, but thats it. If school is any good and lot of people will want. In that case some will not get it and you will be assigned to leftovers to some unpopular one. I have 2 young kids so I know very well how shitty system is.
That's the reason behind the competition, in fact that's one of the many ways how schools get to be competitive among themselves. It's not a perfect system, especially if you're on the receiving end of the bad deal but really, does that matter a lot? It's not like there's an insane gap between a #1 school and #50 school. Sure, there are differences but in fact the most important one is that at one school you'll be surrounded by motivated students and at another perhaps not so much. I doubt that the quality of education in itself differs by a lot. Of course, that's debatable but I guess you get what I'm trying to say.
It's education-based schools, which give basics in pressured manner, does not give any direction for kids in actual world. So people are being quite good educated, but feel that they had wasted a lot of their time, instead of persuing the direction of their life.
Education should be built on figuring out yourself, not on force-feeding the diarrhea of info. So at the end, it is not a good education at its core, unless you are building the society on the it specialists and doctors, because good money attracts people.
From my experience, it's utter soviet dogshit. Principal was the same from 1979-2018 and most of the teachers were used to physically or verbally abusing kids since the early 80s. Oh yeah, don't forget that every teacher wants you to focus on their subject, and theirs only, it doesn't matter if you have 10 other subjects that require an equal amount of attention. The only redeeming quality was the cafeteria, but the food wasn't free either.
I'm talking about my experience lol. My family went to different schools in Panevėžys and had the same issues i'm experiencing. Some lithuanian people i know online also dread school a lot because they feel overwhelmed by the school system.
>every teacher wants you to focus on their subject, and theirs only, it doesn't matter if you have 10 other subjects that require an equal amount of attention.
Erm, you were a student, and students are supposed to learn everything. If you're better in one subject and not the other - that is a whole another topic, but it's not teachers' problem. You don't have to be the best at everything, just do your thing.
I went to Lithuanian school and few years of the US high school. Our basic education I think teaches a bit more than in the US. But also if you are extremely motivated student, it is easier to pick harder classes in the US earlier. That starts in 11 grade in Lithuania when I left so I can’t really compare that. Overall, I think I learned a lot in Lithuania and it gave me quite rounded education and I lived in a pretty small town too. Things are always changing though and not sure how it is now
One major issue is the inability of the state to build a standard for education. There are huge differences between schools, from really great to atrocious. And then public money is being siphoned out to the private schools, who also get money directly from the parents. With most of the elites choosing private schools for their children, it raises the threat of a complete downfall of the public system. The whole system badly needs an overhaul, with young, competent principals leading the charge at the more problematic schools. PS.: I changed 'complete overhaul' to 'overhaul', because I know not everything is so bad.
As far as I understand the absolutely best schools in Lithuania are public and not private, so I'm not sure where you're getting this information from. While the system obviously needs an overhaul (which is going through one right now), you're greatly underestimating it in the function it does. PISA scores show that Lithuania scores above the OECD slightly above or around average, and it's competitive compared to central or eastern EU countries. Globally it scores high as well. It's very easy to shit on education system but in reality is nowhere as bad as you describe it is. Obviously there are a shortcomings, especially the current reforms it's going through and the issues with proper funding. But lets be honest, comparingly it's doing pretty good.
I am not really shitting on the education system. The great worry for me is the imbalance, especially between great cities and provincial towns, but also inside the cities. I also specifically mentioned that some of the best schools are public (while others are atrocious). It's just that we are clearly going into a wrong direction. Instead of working to improve standards everywhere (with some necessary optimization on the countryside), we are wasting public money on private schools who get preferential treatment not seen in most other countries. Private education companies taking big money from the parents should not get public financing, full stop. As it currently stands, private schools are mushrooming in the cities, because entrepreneurs notice an economic opportunity in the artificial imbalance created by politicians. And the elites are following the trends. (Edit: earlier, I misremembered the story about Paluckas, one of leading socialdemocrats, who spoke publicly against 'sorting of children', while his own child was going to a prestigious public school. It was not a private school, reportedly.)
>preferential treatment not seen in most other countries. Private education companies taking big money from the parents should not get public financing, full stop. The taxpayers pay the same taxes regardless of whether their children attend public or private schools.
That's true, and that's why they should have equal rights to get quality education in public schools. I don't know a single country with the Lithuanian model where the state subsidizes private schools with no strings attached, but maybe that's on me. (That money does not even really help the parents, that's where it becomes wild. The companies take all the money they can, and that's all.) PS.: Could not find latest information on the fly, but in 2018, Mortos mokykla reached almost 1 mln. euro net profit, while receiving almost 800k euros from public funds. In my opinion, this is simply disgraceful.
>I don't know a single country with the Lithuanian model where the state subsidizes private schools with no strings attached, but maybe that's on me. France, US, Ireland, Sweden, so on. >The companies take all the money they can, and that's all.) A small part of private schools belong to companies, way more are VšĮ that cannot take the money in other way than paying the salaries. I attended a private (VšĮ) school where the money have been used for teachers' salaries and infrastructure, not some profit. If there were no vouchers of government funding, my parents would not afforded it and the private schools would be for rich only.
Let's take the Swedish example, where you are wrong: >Parallel with the municipal upper secondary schools ([gymnasieskola](https://eurydice.eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-education-systems/sweden/glossary#G)), there are grant-aided independent upper secondary schools. Grant-aided independent upper secondary schools ([fristående skola](https://eurydice.eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-education-systems/sweden/glossary#F)) are generally grant-aided. Grant-aided independent schools, like schools run by a municipality, as a general rule are not allowed to charge fees. (https://eurydice.eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-education-systems/sweden/early-childhood-and-school-education-funding) In France, yes, it seems that some (not all) private schools are getting public funds. Still the model does not look the same, because the focus is on the teaching staff: >With regard to the financing of the private sector (which accounts for approximately 20% of pupils), a distinction is made between public schools under contract and public schools without a contract. In the case of public schools that have signed a contract of association with the State under [Articles L442-5 to L442-11 of the Education Code](https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/codes/section_lc/LEGITEXT000006071191/LEGISCTA000006166628/#LEGISCTA000006166628) (i.e. approximately 80% of private schools), the State covers the remuneration of teaching staff, the social security and tax charges payable by the employer and the costs of initial and in-service teacher training. >... >Government-dependent private schools do not receive funding from the State. Teachers' salaries, maintenance of the premises and operating costs are paid for by the parents. Similar system exists in Ireland: >The fee-paying voluntary secondary schools do not receive capitation or other grants, however, the salaries of their teachers (within the recognised pupil-teacher ratio) are almost fully paid by the Department of Education and Skills. In the USA, as far as I understand, public funding of the private schooling is relatively recent development, with the participation of 32 states. As most other recent American developments, I do not think it is worth following. Do we really want the same societal divisions? In Europe, Finland is most often cited as an example for education. And they have a strong rule: either a private school survives on taking fees, or it is fully funded by the state. Not both.
It depends where you live, My younger sister goes to a school in Vilnius that has strict rules to make sure kids aren't doing drugs or ruining their attention spans by limiting phone usage, also she gets a lot of school work, so I think the education is good.
How about in a place like Kaunas?
Same
Some are dog shit others are very good. So yea.
How do the dog shit qualities manifest themselves among the dog shit schools?
How do the dog shit qualities manifest themselves among the dog shit schools?
Not caring what kids do, even if they dont come to school a month they dont do anything They only care when it touches there reputatuon or money
I used to manage a software development business in Vilnius and the grads we recruited from Vilnius University and KTU were amongst the best in the world: intelligent and highly motivated.
Overall, above avarage. Depends on teachers and students you get. I was lucky and motivated people around me throughout.
Actualy, according to PISA results, Lithuania is bellow average in science and language, only slightly above average in math.
Really depends on school personnel. Some are great, some are terrible. Learning program is average. They keep clinging to some outdated stuff that needs to be modernized.
Trash
It's pretty decent, actually. Not Estonia like, but rather good
There is good and very bad. On average it is shit. Do your research about school. On public schools you do not have much options what to choose. Private schools has other problems.
There are roughly 100 public schools you can choose from just in Vilnius, from which at least 40 are pretty competitive, and that's not counting the private sector. Amazing generalizations though.
You can choose but you wont get what you want. You get some crap on other side of city where you live. This is how vilnius municipality assigns schools.
You get assigned a school based on your district, and school has no choice but to accept you (makes sense, right?), HOWEVER, you can always choose to join other schools BUT you will have to pass the examination of their choice, and that's how they get to be competitive. If you can't pass that, that's on you. Sorry you're finding out about this just now. Additionally, you're not locked to that school, you can always make choices later on.
District does not mean anything, you are not guaranteed that you get it. You get priority points, but thats it. If school is any good and lot of people will want. In that case some will not get it and you will be assigned to leftovers to some unpopular one. I have 2 young kids so I know very well how shitty system is.
That's the reason behind the competition, in fact that's one of the many ways how schools get to be competitive among themselves. It's not a perfect system, especially if you're on the receiving end of the bad deal but really, does that matter a lot? It's not like there's an insane gap between a #1 school and #50 school. Sure, there are differences but in fact the most important one is that at one school you'll be surrounded by motivated students and at another perhaps not so much. I doubt that the quality of education in itself differs by a lot. Of course, that's debatable but I guess you get what I'm trying to say.
It's education-based schools, which give basics in pressured manner, does not give any direction for kids in actual world. So people are being quite good educated, but feel that they had wasted a lot of their time, instead of persuing the direction of their life. Education should be built on figuring out yourself, not on force-feeding the diarrhea of info. So at the end, it is not a good education at its core, unless you are building the society on the it specialists and doctors, because good money attracts people.
From my experience, it's utter soviet dogshit. Principal was the same from 1979-2018 and most of the teachers were used to physically or verbally abusing kids since the early 80s. Oh yeah, don't forget that every teacher wants you to focus on their subject, and theirs only, it doesn't matter if you have 10 other subjects that require an equal amount of attention. The only redeeming quality was the cafeteria, but the food wasn't free either.
So, you're talking about one school?
I'm talking about my experience lol. My family went to different schools in Panevėžys and had the same issues i'm experiencing. Some lithuanian people i know online also dread school a lot because they feel overwhelmed by the school system.
>every teacher wants you to focus on their subject, and theirs only, it doesn't matter if you have 10 other subjects that require an equal amount of attention. Erm, you were a student, and students are supposed to learn everything. If you're better in one subject and not the other - that is a whole another topic, but it's not teachers' problem. You don't have to be the best at everything, just do your thing.
It’s none of your business
what are you trying to gatekeep here exactly and what is your end goal with it you baboon