Demokratinio valdymo įtaka bendrojo lavinimo mokyklos veiklos kokybei

Abstract

In recent years there has been a visible increase in the relevance of the quality of educational governance in the Lithuanian Education System. The quality of education was the main priority of the second stage in the Educational Reform. The quality of education has also been announced as one of the three main goals in the Lithuanian Education Strategic Development Plan 2003-2012. Today’s school governors encounter constant and rapid changes, which require relevant behaviour, skills, and competence in setting targets and attaining them with the assistance of the teaching staff. The quality of the school activity depends on the influence of the school governor on his or her employees. The purpose of the research is to evaluate whether the nature of governance and organised team work in general schools influence the quality of the instutional activity. Since school is an object of education, it has the right to autonomy and to the possibility to solve independently various tasks regarding its competence. The democratization of school’s interior governance implies it becoming a self – governing body; extension of its rights, duties and responsibilites; implementation of election; democratization of all the relations (between the teacher and the student, between the teacher and competitive administration, between the student and the student; between the teacher and the parents); an increase in financial independence; implementation of novelty; openness to the nearest environment. The quality of education is the integrity of features, which allow to decide how the educational institution, region, educational system or its separate subsystems perform their educational goals, comply with national requirements and standards, fulfill the European Union’s and foreign countries’ educational objectives; seek innovation and constant perfection under the existing conditions and improve these conditions. When Lithuania had become a member of the European Union, one of the most relevant problems regarding the governance and economy of education became to ensure the efficiency, succession and competitive ability of our country’s institutions. The purpose of governing the quality of activity is to increase the number of current and potential users, to strengthen the competitive ability of educational institutions and to improve their efficiency. Of great importance are the questions regarding quality, parental orientation, efficiency and economy. Thus, the main goal is to correlate the possibilities of educational institutions with requirements and wishes of the consumers of educational services, so that both sides fulfil their objectives most efficiently. In summary, it can be stated that in order to ensure the quality of education a number of factors must be evaluated, particularly the correlation of the mission of the institution, the needs of the members of the community and the activity of the institution. There is a direct connection between the democratization of the school governance and organised team work – the more democratic approach of the school governor (i.e. aimed at people, their intercommunication and the rezults of the activity); the greater involment of the teaching staff in the innovation processes and improvement of the quality of educational institution.