VU Šiauliai Academy Director Renata Bilbokaitė: Education System is Tired of the Reforms
In the public sphere, it is often said that Lithuanian pupil outcomes are getting worse, and that challenges are emerging not only in training future teachers, but also in encouraging secondary school graduates to study pedagogy. How should these problems be addressed, and what action needs to be taken? Today, we talk about it with the director of Vilnius University Šiauliai Academy (VU ŠA) Prof Renata Bilbokaitė.
The importance of education sciences is not recognised
Last year, after the secondary school final exams – especially after the unsuccessful mathematics exam that more than 30 per cent of the seniors who took it did not pass – there was a lot of discussion about the quality of Lithuanian education. Asked what should change in the Lithuanian education system and how VU ŠA could contribute, Prof Bilbokaitė says that it is difficult to reach an agreement when looking for an answer to this question.
“We would probably get as many answers as there are educators, teachers and researchers in Lithuania. We would never find one right answer, because the education system is multi-layered, multifaceted, and highly affected by other sectors. In addition, this is not a case where some foreign experts – who we tend to trust more than our own – will tell us what to do. We should start looking for answers at the highest level: does the country have an education strategy? What do we want to achieve in education and through education – have we agreed on what kind of education we want and what kind we are prepared for? We have to answer for ourselves what we are aiming for in the next five or ten years, from higher education to pre-school,” Prof Bilbokaitė says.
The professor points out that without a strategy, it is very difficult to carry out operational actions, and this leads to a lot of fragmentation and makes it impossible to avoid the never-ending reforms that come with each new government: “Research shows that education system is tired of the reforms. Every major new policy-maker is reforming the education system – we no longer have continuity or long-term goals, so there are also no long-term results.”
The director of VU ŠA is convinced that the importance of education sciences and their contribution is not recognised in society, and especially in the academic community; research in other sciences is still expected to answer questions in the field of education. However, education sciences are interdisciplinary – how to teach/learn, so integrity and common answers are sought from different fields.
“The sorest spot is didactics. It is universally emphasised that a researcher should only write high-level articles for foreign scientific journals, so children, teachers and parents who do not read these publications are completely forgotten – so then what is their impact? In other words, researchers no longer get to practice – they no longer visit the reality of education and do not write textbooks or methodologies. Therefore, we have hundreds of translated textbooks and a total educational/methodical cacophony, because, unfortunately, the laws of logical positivism do not work here – creating a uniform environment for all circumstances in education is practically impossible due to the uniqueness of the learners, the different circumstances, and many other known and unknown factors,” Prof Bilbokaitė explains.
According to Prof Bilbokaitė, we are facing the very serious consequences of not promoting education sciences research in the country – education is being improved by fragmentarily drawing on the experience of other countries, relying on the opinions of various experts who are not always professionals, or satisfying the interests of other stakeholders. She asks rhetorically, “If we keep telling ourselves that studies must be based on science, then why don’t we apply that in education?”
In addition, the professor says that a focus on achievements is currently more prevalent, with the most important thing becoming matriculation exam scores, and not the child’s well-being, maturity, literacy, values and character, which are the basis of a democratic state.
“By only focusing on achievements, we forget the deeper purpose of education: to develop and learn to develop within ourselves (this applies to both children as well as their teachers and parents) wholeness, creative flexibility and holism, increasing the inner maturity of the learner on a daily basis. In a sense, it is the creation of oneself and another for multifaceted realisation, so learning outcomes alone do not in any way reflect the pupil’s future life, because learning does not start ‘here’ and does not end at some specific ‘there’ after passing exams – it lasts a lifetime in one form or another.
Achievements – from a philosophical point of view – are like a fragile temporality, such as exams or the Olympics; they are significant in a particular case, but their significance disappears when the case is over (for example, after receiving a diploma or enrolling in a higher education institution). Therefore, it is much more important to look for parallels and connections with real life in education, and to promote the need for lifelong learning, critical reflections, creativity, a broad approach to everything, and inner freedom, giving more and more power to the emancipation of the person,” Prof Bilbokaitė notes.
The professor is convinced that putting the sole emphasis on the pupil’s achievements is akin to “sorting” people. This may be necessary in some cases because it helps to avoid chaos, but according to the professor, it is not right, and it is certainly not constructive, because it is only one part of learning, and the much deeper and broader part is left on the fringe.
“We often hear that pupils don’t find school interesting. The teachers lose interest too. This complementary derivative is generated. One person or a group of policy makers cannot resolve this situation that quickly. We should all take responsibility in the pursuit of change,” Prof Bilbokaitė says.
No competition
2020 statistics for higher education admissions show that the study fields of law and medicine lead the top ten most popular study programmes. Secondary school graduates also link their future with studies in software systems, economics, political science, the creative and entertainment industries, and international business. Meanwhile, pedagogy is still a rare choice among students, so competition is low.
“When the competition is not very high and it is easy to get into a higher education institution, it is only natural that the selection criteria does not presuppose people who are the most ambitious and eager to work in the field coming to universities. However, I would not be inclined to single out teacher training as the only problem. Let’s not forget one fact – a higher education teacher is trained for four or six years, but after that, the teacher goes out to work independently and must continue to improve, grow professionally, and pursue lifelong learning on his or her own,” the professor points out.
When asked what she thinks about the decision to award an additional 300 EUR stipend to students who decide to study pedagogy, the director of VU ŠA notes that this is definitely a significant step, but it is not enough.
“Statistics show that enrolment has gone up and competition has emerged. Last year, our academy had five applicants per place. However, this is definitely not enough, because study programmes such as integrated natural sciences and training of humanities and mathematics teachers remain untouched. There is still no competition there – admissions are very low,” Prof Bilbokaitė comments on the situation, adding that more measures are needed in addition to those already in place.
An important component is the image that the teaching profession has. In Estonia, Finland and Ireland, the teaching profession is a prestigious one. It is an honour to have this job. As Prof Bilbokaitė points out, Finland and Estonia are trying to improve their education systems with their own resources, investing in educational participants and creating conditions for teachers to work and for pupils to learn.
“We know the Lithuanian context, especially the situation in the regions, where some specialisations will be left without teachers in five years. Therefore, measures to improve the image of teachers need to be developed. We’re talking about the fate of the country, because only teachers prepare pupils for higher education and later – for the labour markets,” the director of VU ŠA emphasises.
Sees the need and importance of matriculation examination
Recently, there has been a lot of discussion in the public arena about doing away with matriculation exams, weighing all of the pros and cons and the forms of taking exams. According to the head of VU ŠA, when making a decision, the situation should be assessed from the pupil’s point of view: will doing away with matriculation exams limit their opportunities in the future? She points out that even after a sudden disruption in the social system, the possibility of continuing education remained.
“Why are exams necessary? Because this is the system used by universities in Lithuania and many other countries if you want to enrol in a higher education institution. The results of the matriculation exams are needed to form scores when applying. If the universities in our country have not confirmed a new system for credits, then how will pupils be able to enrol in institutions of higher education? In addition, if institutions of higher education were to temporarily change the admissions system, how would the pupils who graduated last year feel? After all, for them, the learning process was disrupted very unexpectedly. In addition, wouldn’t we be limiting opportunities for pupils to study in the future? A decision like this should be assessed very carefully and responsibly. However, I still feel that we should not do away with exams,” Prof Bilbokaitė says.
When asked what she would recommend to seniors and their teachers who want to spend the months left before the state matriculation exams as productively as possible, Prof Bilbokaitė says that they should concentrate, prioritise and prepare for the exams as if they were the Olympics.
I would say that they should stop being sidetracked and really concentrate. If you want to accomplish something in life, you have to put in a lot of effort and give up some of your favourite activities for a while. Few of us have exceptional abilities or manifestations of genius, so most of us need to study. If passing the exams as well as possible is important to you, take the time for it now, because this stage will not come back. When the going gets tough, think about how athletes or musicians practice for hours on end until they achieve the desired results.
However, most importantly – do not obsess about it and don’t focus solely on results – finishing school is just one of life’s many stages, and there will be many more. It is important to remember that whatever your exam grades are, every pupil is unique in this world, so your life and quality of life depend on a variety of factors not related to the school at all, and a successful career is often determined by an inner desire to seek, improve, change, create, and just – to be happy,” VU ŠA director Prof Bilbokaitė says.