The Legal status of Lithuanian teachers

Abstract

During the period of 2003-2012 education system changes according to the National Education Strategy 2003-20121 were implemented in Lithuania. Many changes were made during past period in education sector including teachers work, qualifications and in-service training, re-qualification, schools network changes. Lithuanian education system is facing di erent challenges such as quality and prestige of teacher’s work improvement, adaptation to rapid demographic changes (decrease in the number of children, population aging and migration), schools network changes. Figures below show how the number of pupils and teachers changed in public schools during 2000 – 2013. Given the number of pupils, the number of teachers in Lithuania is relatively high, but a large part consists of the older teachers. An average of pupils per teacher in Lithuania in 2010 was 8 pupils (basic and secondary levels of education). Less than that in 2010 there were only in a few EU countries, while the EU average is 12,2 pupils per teacher. Less average of pupils per teacher is usually in smaller cities. Figure 3 shows that average of pupils (primary basic and secondary education) per teacher decreased during 2010-2013.[...]