Education In Lithuania

n Lithuania the education is mostly public (taxpayer-funded) with private or religious facilities being an exception. The school life is especially long with university education being a norm for modern youth.

Schools and pre-school education
Most children attend state (public) schools where the education is free (taxpayer-funded). These have three tiers: for ages 7-10 ("primary schools") a single teacher teaches most subjects, for ages 11-14 ("progymnasiums") there are separate teachers for each subject but still no choice on what to learn (save for religious education and 2nd foreign language), while at ages 15-18 ("gymnasiums") students have a limited choice of their lectures. While there are prestigious gymnasiums, at the earlier tiers most pupils are enrolled at schools closest to their homes as the quality varies little.

Official language is Lithuanian but there are minority-oriented public schools that use their languages for instruction. The network of Russian schools covers the main cities while the Polish schools are concentrated in the southeast.

Private schools tend to be expensive (by Lithuanian standarts) and not very popular. Few schools cover the entire school life with private schooling more popular for younger kids. For English medium-of-instruction education however "private" is the only option and largely limited to Vilnius.

There are also a few Roman Catholic schools in the cities.

Pre-school education (kindergartens) is not compulsory. With more women than ever working (the female share of workforce is larger in Lithuania than in every single Western society) there is a shortage of public kindergartens in the main cities. It is common to write your child into a queue immediately at birth. Akin to schools the private kindergartens are expensive although the shortages make them somewhat popular. Some families rely on (great) grandparents to rear their toddlers instead of kindergartens.

Lithuania has a wide range of paid informal education, most of it in Lithuanian language. Lithuanian basketball academies are especially famous.

Universities and colleges
In Lithuania most young people attend public universities of which there are many. Vilnius University is the oldest and the most prestigious but some others successfully compete at specific fields (Mykolas Romeris University in social sciences, Kaunas University of Technology in technological sciences, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences in medical sciences).

Yet other public universities are however widely known to be "second-choice" and some politicians doubt their need. The few private universities (limited to social sciences) are somewhat infamous for being a choice of "rich-yet-incapable" as they accept nearly everyone whoever pays a large tuition (public university tuition is state-subsidized for Lithuanian citizens; to many better students the education there is free). Even the largest tuitions are small by the US standarts however with a 3000 USD annual fee considered expensive.

University education takes 4 years (Bachelor's degree), 6 years (Master's degree, the most sought-after) or 10 years (PhD). Some universities offer English medium-of-instruction studies and attract a sizeable foreign student population (up to 10% in Lithuanian University of Health Sciences).

Alternatively, there are colleges with 3 year education and more practice-oriented studies - but they all are regarded as less prestigious.

Even less prestigious is the vocational education opted mainly by those seriously incapable to do anything more (but however even some of those people attempt to seek a Master's degree regardless - at some obscure humanity they dislike but were able to succesfully apply to).

Enrollement into Lithuanian universities and colleges is largely based on the annual Lithuanian National Exams (May-June) taken by those graduating gymnasiums that year. Each potential student may choose which of 14 subject exams to sit, while each study program has a pre-decided set of National Exam results taken into account when admitting. A student then drafts a National Application (one for all Lithuanian universities and most colleges), listing up to 20 study programs by priority. In July-August he/she is automatically admitted to the highest-priority one where National Exams results have been enough. The National Exams are hyped as making-or-breaking a person as they decide both the career path and scholarships/tuition discounts. To prepare for National Exams many students hire tutors one or two years in advance. Foreign students may pay the full price and enroll into universities without sitting at National Exams.