How creative and cultural industries will affect changes in education?
On the 1st of September, 2021 an agreement on Lithuanian education policy until 2030 was signed in the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania. During the press conference the Chair of the Parliament Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen stated that the agreement “will become an important basis for increasing the quality of our education and moving it to the next level”.
The agreement emphasizes the integration of the cultural and creative sector into the educational process, enables education to strengthen democratic society and its culture, promote civic, national and political awareness and mutual trust. International recognition of education will be based on scientific research, experimental development, culture and art. Seeing the speed, scale and trends of global change, one understands the importance of education, science and culture for the formation of a personality.
“Strengthening the link between culture and education was one of the priority goals of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania program presented last year. We, as the National Association of Creative and Cultural Industries (NKIKIA), monitor these processes and believe that the national agreement is a good sign and we hope that fundamental sustainable changes will take place by integrating the contribution of the creative and cultural sector into the education system,” notes Živilė Diavara.
The new agreement sets out the following commitments:
– Systematically integrate cultural content, art forms and creativity into formal and non-formal education in order to ensure holistic education opportunities and address the most pressing educational challenges, including cultural and artistic creators, cultural and artistic institutions, non-governmental organizations and teachers. To develop teachers’ abilities to apply methods that promote creativity in the teaching process by training teachers and implementing professional development programs.
– To strive for the quality implementation and development of cultural education, including the cultural passport, at all levels of the education system.
Agnė Begetė, a member of the Board of NKIKIA and the Head of the Education Working Group, director of “Agata”, agrees, “It is positive that the topic of integration of culture and education has found its place in the political program, we look forward to seeing systematic changes.”
Education and culture are the priority topics for the National Association of Creative and Cultural Industries, therefore already this autumn at the end of November, NKIKIA organizes the National Forum “Culture and Education”, to which we will invite experts of the creative and cultural sector to discuss the most important issues, the shortcomings of intersectoral cooperation, as well as opportunities and short-term perspectives, ”says Živilė Diavara, the Chair of the Board of NKIKIA.
NKIKIA projects are partly supported by the Lithuanian Culture Council.