| Abstract [eng] |
The aim of this paper is to investigate how (and whether) equity in education is ensured in Lithuania, and how the factors that determine access to education differ across municipalities in Lithuania. The theoretical part of the thesis presents the concept of social justice and the (in)equality it entails, and examines equity in education: its definition, importance, political provision and the factors that lead to inequality of access in education. The factors are presented through the three components of educational equity: continuity, accessibility, and support measures. Taking into account the identified main problems of educational inequality in Lithuania and applying Rawls, Barr's understanding of equity, the aim is to complement the existing research on educational equity in Lithuania: to identify educational inequalities in terms of final exam scores, and to identify clusters of municipalities in Lithuania in terms of their access to quality educational services. For this purpose, a quantitative study is carried out, descriptive and cluster analysis methods are applied, and Gini coefficient is calculated. The empirical study reveals that the inequality of results in Lithuania is not very high, but needs to be corrected, especially in mathematics achievement. Most of the opportunity factors have remained stable over the five years (poverty risk level, the share of pupils receiving financial or other support, the share of pupils transported to school, the share of pupils participating in non-formal education), while average wages and the average cost of education per pupil have increased. It was found that better final exams results were found in municipalities with higher wages and lower poverty risk levels, i.e. urban and urban municipalities and Kaunas district. Including an overview of policy measures, it is assessed that without a significant increase in education funding, no major changes in educational equity can be expected. It also highlighted the need for cooperation between the SADM and the ŠMSM in addressing the issue of educational equity. The paper poses two hypotheses. The first hypothesis - that educational inequality in Lithuania is growing - was not confirmed. Inequality in educational outcomes was found to be significantly stable. The second hypothesis, that educational outcomes in Lithuanian municipalities are mainly determined by the socio-economic context, was confirmed. However, the second hypothesis would be worthy of further investigation, including the effectiveness of income inequality and active labour market policies. |
