CHANGES IN EDUCATION POLICY: SCHOOL HEAD TRAINING, SELECTION AND APPOINTMENT PROCESSES

Recent transformations in the education sector have been receiving considerable attention both in the pedagogical society and in the political debates. Issues related to the updating of curricula and educational programmes, teacher training and professional development, an earlier start of compulsory education and other important issues related to education are being addressed. Particular attention is being paid to the improvement of the administrative sector of education – the submission and criteria of terms of office and performance evaluation reports of the heads of educational institutions (except for higher education institutions), the formation of the Reserve of School Heads. The most important provisions of the educational documents that have an impact on the assessment of the situation in the general education school sector have also been newly adopted and the lack of heads of educational institutions has become apparent. Although the Reserve of School Heads established by the government should provisionally eliminate this problem, there have been no significant changes in recent years. A questionnaire survey of the heads of educational institutions was conducted. The study involved 11 heads of educational institutions from Vilnius, Šiauliai, Panevėžys counties, who work in general education schools and pre-school education institutions and have different managerial experience in terms of duration. The qualitative content analysis of the data suggests that some of the heads of educational institutions who participated in the study are not satisfied with their salaries, high responsibilities, work for an idea, frequent transformations in education policy. The respondents also specifically identified solutions that could help education policy strategists eliminate the problem of the shortage of heads of educational institutions – the need and opportunities for further improvement, simplified assessment of competencies, higher salaries, extension of terms of office. Keywords: changes in education policy, educational institution, head of the educational institution