Educational Policy Implementati on Contour Designati on Aspect in the Republic of Lithuania. Kaunas District Case

Abstract

Research background. Education is one of the most important factors which determine society development. Moreover, it is continuously affected by the change of globalization. In Lithuania, during more than two decades, some positive changes took place in forming and carrying out education policy. However, some mistakes and drawbacks were not avoided, such as education segment nonconformity, globalization, changes and innovations ignorance, school’s bureaucratization, insufficiently and inefficiently distributed and controlled education funding, inefficient education strategies, the ignorance of innovations, globalization, etc. According to the most important documents of education policy in Lithuania, it has the priority and must determine general society development but still not achieved. The aim of the research. The purpose of the research is to analyse the realization system of education policy in Lithuania, also identify its main drawbacks and suggest recommendations to solve them as it is expedient to view and update the concept analysis of educational policy, taking more attention to the continuously changing spread contours of this conception. The research object is educational policy implementation in Lithuania. Methodology. The applied research methods were the analysis of theoretical literature, documents, law acts, interviewing the experts and comparative analysis. The research was carried out in March 2016 in Kaunas city and Kaunas district areas. The experts were chosen by the area of expertise and the location. There were six experts: two scientists, two representatives of the Kaunas district municipality and two experts of the administrational level. To ensure the confidentiality of these experts in this research, we used the method of data encryption: experts named “Expert A–F”. The main instrument was the interview guide which was made up to know experts’ opinions on each analysed area. The received data was systematized and presented in research areas as practical confirmation of the theoretical thesis. Results and conclusions. As a result, it was identified that the present realization system of education policy is not effective because of such reasons as the financing shortage in educational institutions, its inappropriate distribution, avoiding taking responsibility for mistakes and giving the incorrect information. Therefore, some problems in school bases, network, teaching staff and trainings are obvious. Moreover, it was offered to guide honest and clear principles, keeping sequence policy, defining problems more precisely, developing co-operation between institutions, reviewing students’ financing, taking into account the importance of school maintenance in small villages. The most important part is to distinguish the educational system as a priority in different areas. It should be guided by the implementation of political will.

Keywords: educational policy, system, educational policy implementation.