"Millennium Schools” Programme welcomes autumn with ambitious plans
September 1st is an important day not only for pupils and teachers, but also for the many staff and programmes in the field of education. One of these is the Millennium Schools Programme (MSP), which is gaining momentum.
“As I congratulate teachers, educators and students on the start of the new school year, I want to welcome the successful start of the MSP programme in the first stream of municipal schools. 22 first-stream municipalities have already received an advance of €26 million for activities at the start of the summer. Although summer is a holiday season, these municipalities have been working hard and have already started to implement their progress plans, and we hope that by Christmas the second stream municipalities will be able to do the same”, says Judita Šarpienė, Head of the MSP Programme.
During the summer, coordinators for all four areas (Leadership in Action, Inclusive, Cultural and STEAM Education) started work in the municipalities of the first stream, and the various infrastructure changes, tools and equipment started to be purchased. This will soon be complemented by “soft” activities – educational activities in new environments and with school partners, field trips and internships, in-service training and workshops for both students and teachers.
“Municipalities have started strategically, taking into account what is most needed for the start of the new school year. And while most municipalities focused on infrastructure, the summer also saw a variety of other interesting and meaningful activities,” says J. Šarpienė.
One of them, the Head of the MSP Programme pointed out, was the Education Community Picnic organised last week by the Prienai District Municipality, which this year was organised under the auspices of the MSP Programme, so that everybody could have a good time and get energised for the new school year. Another example is the Leadership in Action event in Panevėžys at the end of spring, where good practices were shared between different schools, presentations were given, and discussions were organised. Also, at the end of August, a conference organised by the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport of the Republic of Lithuania on “Education in the country and regions. Educational Equity”, which focused on the MSP programme, its comprehensiveness and expected results. The programme was identified as a priority for this Government and Minister Gintautas Jakštas called it a comprehensive school modernisation programme, both in physical and attitudinal terms.
Although autumn is just beginning, the experts from the MSP team have already started to conduct live consultations – at the end of the summer, they visited the municipality of Druskininkai and discussed current issues of concern with their team and the municipality of Lazdijai district. Such consultations will continue throughout the lifetime of the project until 2026.
“We can already see the first results of the work of municipalities. As many of them have ambitious plans and enthusiasm, I believe that by the end of the year we will be able to enjoy visible and tangible changes in the municipalities of the MSP. During this period, schools will renovate classrooms and teachers’ rooms, set up STEAM laboratories, art workshops, lifts, sensory rooms, and acquire a variety of educational tools, multifunctional furniture and digital equipment. Activities and education for teachers and pupils are equally important,” says J. Šarpienė.
More than fifty municipalities responded to last year’s call for participation in the MSP programme. With such a high response and in order to ensure the quality of the implementation of the programme in the municipality, it was decided to create two streams of the programme: the first stream started with the municipalities that were more prepared, while the second stream was given a little more time to refine their plans with the help of additional consultations and the assistance of MSP experts. In the first stream, 22 municipalities are participating, 8 of which have prepared joint plans, and in the second stream, 36 municipalities are participating, 6 of which have prepared joint plans, bringing the total number of progress plans prepared and approved to 51.
The project has a budget of €210 million from the Recovery and Resilience Fund and a maximum of €44.1 million from the state budget to reimburse value added tax. The specific support to a municipality depends on the number of pupils in the municipality and the value of its progress plan, ranging from €500,000 to €43 million over the entire project period until 2026. The total amount allocated for the implementation of the progress plans of the municipalities in the first stream is €109,592,639.90, while €99,500,000 + VAT is planned for the plans of the second stream.
The main objective of this programme is to reduce disparities in pupils’ achievement and the quality of education(s) between schools in different municipalities and between municipalities. This is achieved by investing in activities that can help the education community to implement the content of the updated curricula, to strengthen knowledge and skills, to implement inclusive education, to strengthen the leadership competences of principals and teachers, and to give additional attention to cultural and STEAM education in schools. All this is done in line with the principle of networking of schools in the municipality – encouraging sharing and cooperation rather than competition.
Original source: „Tūkstantmečio mokyklų“ programa rudenį pasitinka pradėdama įgyvendinti ambicingus planus – Tūkstantmečio mokyklų programa (tukstantmeciomokyklos.lt)