National Agency for Education

National Agency for Education (Agency) is educational assistance institution founded by the Ministry of Education, Sport  and Science of the Republic of Lithuania. The budgetary institution National Agency for Education was established by merging the former Education Development Centre, National Centre for Special Needs Education and Psychology, Education Supply Centre of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania, National Examination Centre, Centre of Information Technologies in Education and National Agency for School Evaluation.

The work of the Agency  has started on September 1, 2019.

At the moment the mission of Agency is to take part in implementation of the State pre-school, pre-primary and general education policies, induce education institutions (except for higher education institutions) and other education providers to ensure quality of education by providing informational, counselling, qualification improvement and (self-)education environment building assistance, conducting education monitoring and education research, developing the education content, and coordinating its implementation.

The tasks of the Agency are:

• conducting education monitoring, organising national and international education research;
• organising development of the pre-school, pre-primary and general education content and coordinating its implementation;
• developing the educational assistance system while implementing provisions on inclusive education;
• organising and administrating evaluation of learning achievements, Matura examinations and other examinations, evaluation of key competences of individuals and acquired professional competences;
• conducting monitoring and evaluation of compliance with the set requirements for quality of activities carried out by education institutions, practical activities and competences of the pedagogical staff, instructional aids and technological solutions, and providing methodical counselling assistance;
• organising and coordinating provision of education institutions, processes of upgrading educational spaces and introduction of information and communication technologies (ICT), developing and managing information systems and education registers.
• To attain its activity goal and to fulfil the assigned tasks the Agency performs the following functions:
• conducts international education research carried out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) and other organisations, produces reports and disseminates research results;
• analyses results and challenges in the national education system, submits conclusions and recommendations with respect to improvement of education quality and effectiveness of the education system;
• produces reviews on education for the Lithuanian education community as well as international institutions and organisations;
• analyses demand and supply of textbooks and other instructional aids, examines the situation in adjusting the infrastructure in inclusive education;
• conducts research on the national student attainment and other surveys on the situation in education, produces reports about their findings, provides information and submits proposals to education management entities regarding improvement of education;
• coordinates and administers the process of implementation and evaluation of learning achievements of learners participating in general education by means of Matura examinations, learning achievements of learners participating in basic education, national learners’ achievements testing and other testing of learners’ achievements, drafts documentation regulating implementation and evaluation thereof, organises working out of tasks for testing learners’ achievements, organises evaluation of task performance of the State level Matura examinations, provides counselling services to schools and institutions having the status of their owner, institutions exercising the rights and duties of the owner and meetings of participants;
• 7. coordinates and administrates examinations for testing and establishing levels of proficiency of the State (official) language of the Republic of Lithuania, examinations of the fundamentals of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania, organises working out of tasks for testing, administrates evaluation of key competences of individuals and acquired professional competences;
• ensures technical and technological processes of multiplying, delivery and / or performance of tasks for Matura examinations and testing learning achievements by e-means, elaborates and develops methodology of evaluation of individual skills and learners’ achievements as well as use of technologies;
• organises drafting of curricula, teaching methods and materials for learners with different needs, submits proposals regarding models of education organisation, makes their testing, summarizes various practical experience and delivers recommendation regarding their application;
• organises drafting of methods and instruments for getting to know every learner and recognition of individual educational needs, provides methodical counselling assistance to schools and educational assistance establishments (pedagogical-psychological services, education centres, educational assistance services); considers appeals regarding assessment of the learner’s special educational needs;
• coordinates introduction of preventive measures for building secure learning environment, initiates search and development of the new ones and conducts monitoring of this activity sphere;
• participates in implementation of minimum and average child care measures, compiles and analyses data on performance of minimum and average child care activities, provides methodological counselling assistance to child welfare commissions at municipal administrations and implementers of minimum and average child care;
• ensures functioning the reserve of school heads, organises and carries out evaluation of competences of candidates to school heads or equivalent evaluation and monitors evaluation of school heads’ annual performance;
• participates in evaluation of practical performance of teachers and educational assistance specialists and / or in their certification; organises certification of psychologists providing assistance to learners;
• develops and / or implements qualification improvement programmes of specialists working in educational institutions;
• organises and carries out evaluation of suitability of textbooks and other instructional aids for use in the process of education;
• organises and carries out external evaluation of performance of schools carrying out a general education curriculum and formal vocational training programmes, organises evaluation of performance of institutions providing qualification improvement for teachers and specialists providing educational assistance; makes selection of evaluators, provides their training and / or carries out evaluation of their performance;
• provides informational, expert and counselling assistance to education entities that organise and carry out educational activities, stimulates the progress of self-evaluation culture development;
• supports and analyses initiatives produced by stakeholders in education, coordinates and /or implements projects intended to improve performance quality of educational institutions and other education providers;
• organises and coordinates the process of creating content of the information network of schools, development, search, systematisation, procurement, deployment, dissemination and localisation of digital teaching aids for learners with different needs;
• compiles data about results of evaluation, of individual knowledge and skills, examinations, research on attitudes and education, develops the bank of questions and tasks;
• initiates introduction of virtual environments for learning, induces educational institutions to introduce information technologies for management of processes in an organisation;
• coordinates and implements the overall computerisation of the education system: creates classifiers, administers and manages registers, information systems; coordinates integration processes of information systems and registers;
• develops techniques for statistical information compiling on education, produces statistical summaries and provides statistical information; compiles, manages, integrates and processes data on national human resources, education and science in Lithuania, calculates indicators of national human resources, State level monitoring of education and other indicators about education and makes them public;
• communicates information about schools, education programmes implemented by them, conditions for admission of learners to schools, provides hardware and software support services during the process of admission of learners to schools;
• takes part in the process of drafting legislation;
• drafts, implements and administers projects co-funded by the European Union;
• acts as the coordinator of the EURYDICE Sub-programme within the framework of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union, represents the Ministry at international organisations with its mandate or participates per se in activities of international organisations, collects and shares information about advanced innovations being introduced globally in education and their application practice;
• acts as a publisher, produces and publishes periodicals and one-off information publications, including e-publications, provides educational institutions with printed school documentation of the approved form;
• provides information to interested institutions and the broad public according to the procedure established by law;
• performs other functions established by law or delegated by the Ministry.

Director:
Aidas Aldakauskas

Contacts:
Institution code: 305238040
Address: K. Kalinausko g. 7, LT-03107, Vilnius
E-mail: info@nsa.smm.lt
Tel. 8 658 18504

Atnaujinta: 2022-09-02