Commission supports Lithuania in raising quality and efficacy of school leadership

Today, Lithuanian policy-makers and stakeholders discussed new proposals to improve the country’s school management system. The aim is to improve school leadership through comprehensive support to school leaders by attracting high-level candidates. The proposals are the result of a project with direct support from the European Commission.

The new measures proposed today aim at having a comprehensive and coherent system in place for the support and development of school leaders. These include introducing a mentoring system, creating professional networks for school leaders, as well as strengthening the role for universities in the professional development of school leaders.

The European Commission has been providing support to Lithuania through the EU's Structural Reform Support Programme (SRSP). For this project, a group of Lithuanian policy experts from central and municipal levels worked together with school leaders from across the country on an Action Plan to strengthen leadership in education institutions. Supported by experts from other EU Member States, including Ireland and the Netherlands, the project undertook a detailed analysis of the current competence framework for school leaders and how it can be translated into practice of recruitment and professional development of school leaders. Experts from other EU countries contributed to the work with experience from reforms of their own education systems. Today’s conference will also mark next steps in the reform of school leadership – with reflections on how to move from the Action Plan into implementation.

The press release of the Lithuanian authorities can be found here (in LT).

The Structural Reform Support Programme offers expertise to all EU countries for the design and implementation of growth-enhancing reforms. Since 2017, the programme has been supporting over 1000 reform projects in all 27 Member States.