Here is Vaiva's more substantive review for the European Union of the status of Lithuanian education and international outreach. Note her reference to a.p.p.l.e. near the end; Vaiva modestly overlooks her own role in the founding and leadership of the organization. Note also the emotional close of the speech, her trademark, which always left a great impression on her audiences.
Our current body of law creates no legal impediment to implementing the Agreements between The European Community and Canada of 1995 and between the European Community and the United States of America, also of 1995, establishing co-operation programmes in higher education and vocational education and training. Lithuania is ready to accept all European Union obligations undertaken through these agreements from the day that Lithuania becomes a member of the Union. We hope the agreements will be extended. We look forward to taking part and are confident of our competence in project selection. In the interim various agencies and institutions in the United States and Canada have concluded certain agreements with Lithuania and we are already engaged in joint educational projects, although there are no bilateral governmental treaties.
I must say that our sit - before you as a sort of living: Lithuania and the United States are quite capable and quite willing to share intellectual as well as human resources. I have brought with me from my home in the United States to my job at the Ministry of Education and Science, and that is the personal experience of an education in a developed, democratic, open, information-based society. But I am hardly alone as a former US resident in Lithuania. Lithuania has a thriving colony of Canada and US Lithuanians - while perhaps a million Americans and Canadians claim Lithuanian descent. The fact is - there is a historically well-established infrastructure of support for joint projects between Lithuania and the US and Canada. The fascination with and commitment to Lithuania that was once linked with one’s personal national heritage in North America has since 1990 grown to include many policy makers, educators and citizens with no such prior ties. As a result we have developed a powerful Lithuanian momentum in our common educational initiatives with the US and Canada, even though our school and university systems are very different. I would like to demonstrate this experience and our institutional capacity through a brief sketch of these activities as administered through the Ministry, even though they are not EU based as yet.
On July 6 in 1994, in Riga, Latvia, the Governments of US and Lithuania signed a joint treaty on “Co-operation in the area of science and technology”. A five-year co-operation program was delineated with the possibility of renewal for another five-year period. Its purpose is to strengthen the development of science and technologies in both countries, to broaden the scope of and empower specific projects of common interest, to support scientific and technical co-operation in research for peace, to create an infrastructure for the exchange of information, skills and technical equipment. According to this agreement, both Parties assist State agencies and laboratories, universities and other institutions of higher learning to form bilateral partnerships. A very important facet of this agreement is the protection of intellectual property rights.
Also in the area of higher education I should mention an agreement between the American Council for Collaboration in Education and Language Study and then the Ministry of Culture and Education of Lithuania. This agreement establishes a program between the US and Lithuania to aid in the advancement of co-operation in the areas of education, scientific research and language study. This program is automatically renewed yearly and provides for the administration of the TOEFL and GRE examinations in Lithuania as a gateway to international study for Lithuanian students.
Although we have signed no agreements with US or Canada mandating student exchange, many young people do travel to study every year, and under individually negotiated admissions agreements some are supported through Lithuanian stipends. these are modest - 1 to 2.500 Litai monthly, but are essential for students receiving them.
A study program of great interest to Lithuania encompasses co-operative links between Canadian and Lithuanian colleagues. The association of Canadian colleagues has forged an alliance with the Ministry of Education and Science of Lithuania, the Lithuanian College Director’s Association and specific Lithuanian colleges and is providing technical support and curricular consultations. Lithuania is thus better able to reform its college infrastructures and administrative systems and to develop curriculum in two needed areas: tourism development and business administration.
Although the European Union Agreements with the US and Canada refer to higher education and training only. I would like to ask for your indulgence - I would like to briefly mention a few joint programs which are aimed at general education student populations, but which of course are also available to vocational school students.
In 1997 the US Information Agency of the US State Department signed an agreement with the Ministry of Education and Science specifically supporting the development, publishing and distribution of English as a foreign language textbooks. In general the USIA has been an active partner in curriculum development and teacher training, particularly in the area of civic education based on principles of participatory democracy, minority rights and the teaching of tolerance.
We are pleased with the momentum of our Junior Achievement project. Junior Achievement (JA) is a US based non-profit organisation with the purpose of developing economic education programs for young people. Junior Achievement of Lithuania was founded in 1993. Initial funding was through a grant from The Open Society Fund. The programs: Currently the backbone of Junior Achievement is the Applied Economics (AE) course, which is approved by the Ministry of Education and Science. APPLIED ECONOMICS is taught primarily in high schools and secondary vocational schools and colleges all over Lithuania. The course includes a textbook, workbook, Automatic Test Generator (ATG) computer software system and a teacher’s guide, all of which cover principles of market economics at length and is adapted from US materials and methodologies. PILOT PROGRAMS will be started for business and economic education of students of lower grades. Additionally, an adult education program geared towards employees of newly privatised companies is being explored. Several other programs available to vocational and general schools might be viewed as enrichment programs.
In 1998, Lithuania implemented a program of Strategic Environmental education. At the end of the year, the International GLOBE program issued an invitation to Lithuania to participate through school pilot projects. 38 schools volunteered to conduct ecological research activities. An agreement has been drawn up between the Lithuanian Ministry of Education and Science, the Lithuanian Ministry of Environment and the US Water and Atmospheric Safety Board, which will facilitate participation by schools and provide training for educators.
In the same vein, the International project “Nature’s tale” has drawn in numerous partners: the Lithuanian Ministries of Education and Science and the Environment, the Creative Societies Centre of London, the British and American Arts Association and the European Council program “Culture, creativity and youth”. The European Council has labelled this partnership a model for Europe. In 1999, 9.500 young people participated in this arts for ecology program with US involvement.
Finally, a word about educator in-service initiatives. We have limited contacts with Canada in this area. One spotlighted program is “In-service for teachers of English”. Begun in 1994, the program brings 5-6 instructors to Lithuania yearly. About 100 teachers and 30 school directors hone their English language skills.
A far broader project is the American Professional Partnership for Lithuanian Education. Initiated in 1990 as Lithuania regained her independence, this program has provided in-service to over 10.000 or somewhere over 20% of Lithuania’s general and vocational education teachers over a broad range of subjects including civic and environmental, agricultural education methodologies and administration. This program melds the talents of accomplished US volunteers and acts as a catalyst for grass-roots-initiated change eventually reaching systemic levels. It is telling that the Ministry has stood solidly behind this bilateral voluntary professional program for nine years, although our government has changed political hands in a number of popular elections.
Of course this means that some long-term commitments overarch short-term political change. This is good news for our commitments towards and with the European Union.
There is a very famous by Thomas Wolfe I believe novel called “You can’t go home again”. Although I am not nearly fifty years old, sometimes I have the emotional sense, the false memory, that my country was taken from me for 50 years. I am deeply grateful that this time has ended, that Lithuania is free, and that I have been able to come home. Similarly, I think that Lithuania is ready to come home to take its place at the table, to bring to the European table its cultural riches and its people’s courage. I believe that our educational system will pave the road home and that the journey will be swift. Thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment