Upbeat minister sees Lithuanian universities soon in top 500

The 43-year-old Gintaras Steponavicius, a lawyer by profession, after graduating from Vilnius University’s Law Faculty in 1992, went on to improve his legal knowledge at the Hague’s International Law Academy in the Netherlands, then to Copenhagen University, Birmingham University’s European Law Institute, European Law Academy in Florence, Italy, and Groningen’s Royal University in the Netherlands. Having started out as a senior specialist at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1991, he has shuffled through different appointments, obtaining multi-faceted experience. He worked as commentator of the quarterly magazine East European Constitutional Review, then lecturer at Vilnius University’s Institute of International Relations and Political Science.

He served as Vilnius Municipality’s council member and embarked on writing legislation in Seimas as a parliamentarian. He has spent two consecutive tenures in Seimas, before being appointed minister of the Ministry of Education and Science, in 2008. Steponavicius is credited for founding the Liberalu Sajudis (Liberal Movement) in the early ’90s, a liberal-oriented party, which holds three seats in incumbent Prime Minister Kubilius’ government. Remarkably, while the ratings of other Coalition parties have crumbled to record lows, Liberalu Sajudis manages to hold on to its steady public approval rating. “Our three ministers are not tarnished with any scandal,” Steponavicius says proudly, sitting down to speak to The Baltic Times.

What do you dislike in Lithuanian secondary schools, as minister and father of two children?
When I was appointed to this capacity, I noticed right away that secondary schools are overloaded with all kinds of papers. Thus, one of my first initiatives that I started as minister was weeding out those papers, as I call it resoundingly, from our schools. Can you believe that before my coming to the Ministry there were nearly 150 different documents regulating school activities? With my appointment, I pledged to weed out as many of the papers as possible. I am proud to have done that, as now there are only half of that number left, while some papers were simplified. I want our schools to be more independent, initiative-oriented and less bureaucratic. I want our teachers to pay more attention to the kids, not to filling out numerous papers. Besides, I cannot stand a widespread culture of learning by rote in our schools.

Regrettably, our children, instead of being prepared for life, are being prepared for exams. We have started seriously reviewing our educational content recently, aiming at nurturing creativity, public spirit and initiative. Only with this attitude, today, can schoolchildren be raised as personalities. As a father of two, I want our secondary schools to involve parents more actively in school life. I often hear people saying that parents do not care about their children’s schools. Upon hearing such a remark, I always want to ask school principals and teachers what they have done to attract their schoolchildren’s parents to schools. Regrettably, when attending the so-called parents’ meetings at school, most often I catch myself scribbling down some miscellaneous things, but no one asks me my opinion on the school’s important issues. There are many ways to involve parents in a school’s life. It is always up to a school what kind of involvement it is.

Recently, the entire Lithuania was shaken by the grisly murder of a 14-year-old girl by a 15-year-old teenage boy. With many families out there missing one or both parents, like in the girl’s case, do you share the notion that the homicide reflects Lithuania’s grim reality – children lack parental care and supervision? Does the blame for the murder fall on the victim and murderer’s schools as well?
It is a horrible crime, which is hard to forget. However, in this case, the parents should be held accountable for their children – not the schools. Nevertheless, not in any way blaming the schools for the children, I want all schools to focus more on the individual needs of children, as well as their individuality. Obviously, as the tragedy shows, the Internet raises many challenges, but children have to learn about them at home from their parents.

Let us talk a bit about politics. Over two and a half years in the ruling Coalition, saw ruling parties’ approval ratings plummeting dramatically. However, your Liberalu Sajudis (Liberal Movement) has retained nearly the same approval. How do you explain that?
Well, over the period, we have not chased after decisions that generate popularity points. More importantly, none of our three ministers has been tarnished by any scandal or entangled in some shady histories. Though we had to adopt many unpopular decisions throughout the years, they apparently affected people’s sympathies to politicians not as much as politicians’ personal involvements in shady affairs. It was not our case.

According to surveys, nearly 90 percent of Lithuanian schoolchildren in the provinces are determined to leave their small villages and towns for larger cities, or intend to emigrate after finishing secondary school. Does that worry you?
Yes, it does a lot. However, I have to acknowledge the determination is the crisis’ severe aftermath. Besides, generally speaking, we are too negative in Lithuania – everywhere, including our education system as well. I wish we were more focused on positive things in our daily life. Only having done that will we be able to transmit a positive charge onto our kids. Certainly, the authorities have to painstakingly do their homework when it comes to improving the ailing economy and change the current trends.

May I ask you a personal question?
Sure.

As far as I am aware, your child from your second marriage is with special needs…
Well, yes. My little daughter is slightly disabled. It does not make her and our life very easy, but I am happy to see her advancing in everyday-life more and more.

Does the Lithuanian education system embrace children with special educational needs to the fullest extent? Can those children fully integrate into society after finishing Lithuanian schools?
As far as my daughter is concerned, she attends a state-run kindergarten and she gets the best care there. Trust me, she is very happy there – wonderfully getting along with the other kids. In terms of society’s attitude to those kinds of people, we have to learn in Lithuania many tolerance lessons yet.

Since the restoration of Independence, throughout 20 years, Lithuania has attempted to introduce many education systems in our secondary schools. Sometimes I have a feeling even their architects, let alone ordinary teachers and principals, do not know what one or another education system is about. How can you describe the education system that we are oriented to nowadays?
Well, indeed, through the years, we have been trying to create both a national education system and some nice mix of it with Western patterns. If looking at the carried out or still ongoing reforms, undoubtedly, we will see that we are focusing on the best achievements of Western education systems. However, how good we are at their implementing is another question. As you know, there is a very wide range of opinions when it comes to evaluating the reforms. As minister, however, I do not want to be carried away by numerous strategies. Instead, I would rather focus on concrete goals: as I said before, eradicating stacks of papers required to be filled out on a daily basis at schools. I repeat from the same beginning that I stand for concrete tasks and work. Unfortunately, there are so many vociferous declarations and statements in Lithuanian politics.
 
If you were in a position to reform the education system further, which would be possible if you led the government on your own, but not in the conservative-led Coalition, what steps would you take first?
Frankly, I could not think of any. Honestly speaking, Liberalu Sajudis’ views regarding the reforms and the education system do match those set by the other partners of the Coalition. I am happy to have the prime minister’s personal support for the reforms that I have been carrying out for over two years now. As I said before, my biggest task is easing up running schools and making them more functional.

The Europeam Court of Human Rights has recently declared a ruling that has stirred much fuss – banning the Calvary in Italian public schools. Lithuania was one of the first to support Italy in overruling it. Being a liberal and minister, do you think that Catholic appurtenances such as the Calvary should be displayed in Lithuanian public schools?
Lithuanian public schools are secular. To put the Cavalry in a school’s class or not is up to the school’s community. The Ministry of Education and Science does not impose any regulations regarding that. To go further, if some public schools want to become Catholic, and if there is school community support for the idea, I will maintain the will. In fact, we already have certain examples of that. Like in Kaunas, where several public schools collaborating with Kaunas Archdiocese emphasize Christian values and teaching in the curriculum. However, it cannot go to an extreme and become a prevailing trend, as other faith believers’ rights may be undermined.

Lithuania boasts one of the largest numbers in the European Union for a population with higher education. In 2009, only one out of 13 entrants did not enter a higher education establishment. Is that something we should be proud of?
The high percentage reminds me of the Soviet times, when higher education was available and affordable by anyone. However, I am deeply convinced that the number shows how devaluated higher education has been in Lithuania. Nevertheless, I have been seeing some positive change in the trend over the last couple of years – more students choose vocational schools, and due to the decrease of state-financed quotas in higher education establishments, there are slightly less entrants in them. The demographic situation when many young people emigrate or opt for studies abroad also has influenced the process positively. However, we all have to do much more in revealing the attractiveness of vocational training.

Has anyone in the Ministry estimated how much it costs for the state to raise a child from primary school to undergraduate?
Well, we have several methodologies to make the calculations. The total depends on a child’s skills and abilities. Thus, this year, the state devotes 3,310 litas (nearly 1,000 euros) per year for a child in secondary school. In addition, local municipalities contribute to that. When it comes to higher education, the state pays on average 6,000-7,000 litas per year for university studies, while the price peg is 20-30 percent lower in colleges, and makes up one-third of that in vocational schools.

No doubt certain academic studies, for example, medicine, are much costlier than others. This year, over half of Vilnius University Medicine Faculty’s graduates have chosen postgraduate studies abroad, though Lithuania has invested a lot in their studies. Is it likely that this practice will change anytime soon? Are you among those urging the students to reimburse the state for expenses?
No, I am not one of those. I think we cannot blame a young specialist for something that he or she is not responsible for – the state’s inability to provide him or her with a desirable postgraduate program or a job. Certainly, medical studies are very costly; however, we cannot deter our young people from fulfilling their professional aspirations, [going] where they can more easily afford it. Lithuania is not the only country that suffers from the brain drain. For example, many Lithuanians study in the United Kingdom, but Brits never come up with the idea to send a bill to the Lithuanian government when the student comes back to Lithuania. Our task is to reach such an economic level that will keep out students at home.

When will this happen?
We have bottomed out and we are scrambling up. Undoubtedly, it will take a dozen years at least, but I am convinced we will see positive signs already in the near future.

When will we see Lithuanian higher educational institutions among the top 500 schools in the world?
I think that our decision to affiliate 19 different institutes to Vilnius University and Kaunas Technology University will result in the schools’ leap up the rankings by at least one hundred places. I want to believe it will happen in a few years. Much more importantly, it will be a huge leap in the study quality.