A more detailed OECD report on adult skills surveyed in 2023, published in July, revealed that 33% of young Lithuanians aged 16–25 have low skills. That is, they have achieved only the first or lower level in reading or/and numeracy.
The indicator for Lithuanian youth is better than for all adults in the country – 44% of these people have low skills, which is the 4th worst result among the surveyed countries.
On the other hand, in terms of youth skills, we also lag significantly behind other countries, ranking 7th from the bottom out of 31 countries participating in the study. For comparison, in Estonia, almost three times fewer young people have low skills – only 12%. An even smaller proportion of young people with low skills is only in Japan (8%). The OECD average is 23%.
“A decade ago, the results of Lithuanian youth exceeded the OECD average, but today almost every third young person has low skills, and we are at the bottom of the table of surveyed countries. Such trends are particularly concerning at a time when the Seimas continues to lower the minimum requirements for students. Adult and youth skills surveys show that low standards do not solve problems – they only temporarily hide them,” says Laura Masiliauskaitė, head of “Švietimas #1”.
On July 14, the Seimas abandoned the requirement, which was supposed to come into force in autumn, to pass three state maturity exams (VBE) to graduate from school, and to obtain basic education and move on to the 11th grade – to pass at least four basic education achievement tests (PUPP) in Lithuanian language and mathematics.
Due to this decision, 36 education, science, business, and public organizations appealed to President Gitanas Nausėda, asking him to veto the decision. According to them, eliminating the standard will not make learning gaps disappear, so the standard must be maintained, and students experiencing difficulties should be provided with real help and an individual plan for reducing gaps.
What lies behind the poor results?
Low basic skills in adulthood mean that a person can read a simple sentence or perform basic calculations, but finds it difficult to reliably use these abilities in everyday situations. Greater difficulties arise when it is necessary to link several pieces of information, perform more than one calculation, or choose the appropriate solution method oneself.
This can complicate understanding employment contracts or medical information, comparing different financial offers, calculating percentages, or distinguishing reliable information from misleading.
Harder to learn further
The consequences of low skills are visible not only in performing specific tasks. Adults with low basic skills are about a third less likely to participate in the labor market than people with average abilities, according to the OECD. Those who work earn on average about five US dollars less per hour. They also more often report poorer health, less satisfaction with life, and weaker trust in other people and institutions.
Lack of abilities also limits further learning. A young person who finds it difficult to understand text will have more difficulty learning other subjects.
“A certificate confirms that a young person has finished school, and a diploma – that they have completed a study program. However, neither document alone guarantees that a person can understand a more complex text, evaluate arguments, or use numbers in real-life situations. By lowering the bar, we can award diplomas to a larger proportion of people, but their abilities will not change. We must be interested not only in how many young people graduate but also in what they actually know, as this will determine their success in both professional and personal life,” states L. Masiliauskaitė.
In Estonia – one in eight, in Lithuania – one in three
A comparison of the Baltic countries further clearly reveals the scale of Lithuania’s problem. In Estonia, approximately one in eight young people have low reading or numeracy skills, in Latvia – slightly more than one in four, and in Lithuania – one in three.
During the previous study conducted in 2014–2015, Lithuanian youth’s mathematics and reading skills still exceeded the OECD average. However, the 2023 study revealed that in less than ten years, Lithuanian youth’s reading and mathematics results decreased by approximately one tenth.
Meanwhile, in Estonia, youth reading results remained essentially unchanged compared to the previous study, while mathematics results improved. Latvia did not participate in the previous study cycle.
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According to the OECD 2023 study, Estonian youth rank 3rd in reading skills and 5th in mathematical skills out of 31 countries and territories participating in the study, Latvia – 20th and 17th respectively, and Lithuania – only 29th and 26th.
“Estonia is not a distant or incomparable exception to Lithuania – it is our neighbor, which had a similar historical start. When only one in eight young people there have low skills, and in Lithuania – one in three, you cannot explain that by chance. Such a difference is created by decisions made or postponed over many years. The greatest responsibility lies with general education, because it is in school that the foundation for all further learning must be laid,” says the head of “Švietimas #1”.
PISA shows the same direction already in school
The adult skills survey is not the only signal. Similar results are shown by the OECD PISA study, which assesses the ability of fifteen-year-olds to apply knowledge acquired in school.
According to the latest PISA 2022 data, Lithuania ranks approximately 20th in Europe in terms of fifteen-year-olds’ test results, Latvia – 13th, and Estonia – first.
“PISA reveals gaps already in school, and the adult skills survey allows us to see where they go later. Unfilled gaps complicate every subsequent step. Weak skills transfer from school to vocational training or higher education, and later – to the labor market,” notes L. Masiliauskaitė.
The problem needs to be noticed before exams
The decline in youth results shows that adult education alone will not change the situation, emphasizes L. Masiliauskaitė. Therefore, basic abilities must be strengthened in childhood and adolescence, before learning gaps have transferred to all other subjects.
“This requires consistently monitoring each student’s progress and providing help when a child starts to fall behind. Reading comprehension must be developed in all lessons, as it is needed when solving a math problem, analyzing a historical source, reading a science graph, or evaluating information presented online,” notes L. Masiliauskaitė.
Also, she states, it is necessary to better understand what happens when a young person transitions from primary to basic education, from basic to secondary education, from school – to vocational training, higher education, or the labor market. According to “Švietimas #1”, due to fragmented, inconsistently stored, and difficult-to-compare data across different systems, Lithuania lacks a sufficiently coherent picture of how students’ abilities change at different educational stages and where the biggest gaps arise.
Meanwhile, Estonia tracks children’s paths from kindergarten to career. Estonia combines data on pre-school, general, vocational, and higher education, lifelong learning, and graduates’ entry into the labor market in one place.
“It is also necessary to strengthen the management of the entire education system and individual schools so that leaders and teachers can timely notice children’s difficulties, consult on assistance, and act as a team. In Lithuania, there are already schools and municipalities that systematically monitor students’ progress, mobilize teachers, and are able to help children with different needs. It is important to accurately assess what works in them and create conditions for other schools to adopt these solutions,” says L. Masiliauskaitė.
New measures should also first be tested in a few schools or municipalities, their impact evaluated, and only then applied throughout the system. This would allow for faster abandonment of ineffective solutions and allocation of more resources to those that truly help children.
“When the system first clearly sees a learning problem during the final exam, it’s already too late. Then one can change exam tasks, standards, or evaluation rules, but this does not eliminate the gaps accumulated over twelve years. Help must reach the child much earlier,” states the head of “Švietimas #1”.
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