Algirdas Monkevicius Minister of Education and Science Born in 1956. Educated as a mathematics, physics and informatics teacher at the Siauliai Pedagogical Institute. Received a doctorate in sociology in 1991. Worked as a teacher, school principal, was the president of the regional association of school principals, became the head of the municipal Division of Education, later the Dean of Social Studies at Siauliai University. In 2000 elected to Parliament and appointed Minister of Education and Science.

The quality of education is contextual and its shape evolves. We comprehend quality as an understanding between the providers of education and learners, as an agreement according to which needs and possibilities, the ideal and the potential, are bridged as best can be in a given period of time.

When we speak of education quality we always come back to the beginning: goals, visions and values. A person has to learn a great deal in order to be independent, to be free, and to ensure that his country never becomes the plaything of others. History provided my country with powerful positive and negative experiences. We have experience of national empowerment and disempowerment, knowledge that democracy is neither self-generated nor guaranteed; also that education may help a nation form and maintain its own individual and unique identity.

How can education help a person and a society answer today’s challenges? We seek answers to those challenges that the entire world faces: globalization, the information explosion, rapid change, and deep social divisions. These challenges invite us to explore new possibilities, but they also create potentially dangerous situations. Lithuania, along with other post-Soviet countries, is seeking these answers in the context of freedom. Education must provide for the growth of whole and healthy personalities, for clarity of individual and national identity, for the underpinning of tolerance and guarantees of equal rights, for the nurturing of basic competencies, information technology and management skills, civic maturity and a host of other things.

In October of 2003, the Ministry of Education and Science of Lithuania, together with the National Education Forum, partners and supporters (UNESCO, the World Bank, UNDP and the Open Society Fund) hosted a Baltic sub-regional conference in Vilnius: “Quality Education for All: Basic Competencies for Lifelong Learning. The European Dimension and the Baltic Vision.” The conference was dedicated to sharing experience, with an emphasis on international dialogue regarding education reforms and the necessity of including civil society in policy-making. Problematic aspects of implementation of “Education for All” were discussed, including differences in interpretation of education rhetoric, a natural desire for ready-made recipes for success, deeply seated societal stereotypes and shifting political currents.

In 2003, Lithuania made certain decisions about its further vision for education. We now have new policy documents – the National Education Strategy 2003-2012 and the new redaction of the Law on Education. These documents pay particular attention to issues of education accessibility and quality. They were drafted with the participation of the National Education Forum and many other governmental and social partners. After all, consistent public accountability and civic participation are necessary conditions for improving quality.

In seeking a higher quality, in recent years we have renewed the content of education, with a greater orientation toward the nurturance of basic competencies. We are now beginning a reform of teacher pre-service and in-service training systems. We have pursued a new vision of education management and monitoring, we have renovated and computerized schools and provided them with a variety of modern teaching aids as well as school buses for student transport.

I am certain that the IBE Conference will help all of our countries to evaluate better our own work as well as share experience and ideas about the quality of education in pursuit of the highest of purposes. Our common goals and the power of education cannot begin and end by satisfying individual and national needs at the borders of states – they must bridge our borders and bring our peoples together for a harmonious and peaceful world. This is why our systems of education must be collaborative and open throughout the world.