UNESCO ASPnet

Lithuania has been an active member of the UNESCO Associated Schools Network since 1997. It is the largest international network of United Nations member schools working for peace, mutual understanding and international tolerance. The UNESCO Associated Schools Project Network (UNESCO ASPnet), founded in 1953, brings together more than 8 000 schools and other educational institutions in 175 countries worldwide. Created in this innovation lab, the programs improve the quality of education, address the challenges of the modern world, such as environmental degradation, globalization, urbanization, and offer tools to develop the intercultural communication, peaceful coexistence, and adaptive skills of the future person.

The 15 Lithuanian schools currently named as UNESCO Associated Schools are engaged in various cultural heritage, environmental, education, science, peace, cultural diversity, tolerance-related projects related to UNESCO activities, and are actively involved in various international projects.

Since 2017, all participating schools have been implementing a digital standard for the recognition of competences acquired through non-formal education: open digital badges that allow to create an interactive "portfolio of competences", visualize the learning process, describe achievements and manage purposefully the learning. Such digital innovation creates value not only for the person acquiring competences, but also for everyone involved in the educational process: teachers, professors, others sharing knowledge and good practice, as well as bringing methodological changes to the educational process itself. This model was tested in 2015-2016 at three schools, members of the Lithuanian UNESCO ASPnet, and was later proposed to all members of the network. Such digital technology is also being actively deployed in volunteering, international youth exchange programs, and social business promotion programs. You can read more about UNESCO's ASPnet experience here.

In 2006, the Lithuanian National Commission for UNESCO translated into Lithuanian, adapted and published the Lithuanian edition of the UNESCO World Heritage Center and UNESCO Associated Schools' Training Guide for Teachers on Heritage Education "World Heritage in the Hands of Young People". The publication is also available online. It is the only textbook used in Lithuanian schools for heritage education so far.

Other 28 Lithuanian schools have been participating in the UNESCO Associated School's special Baltic Sea project since 1989. It aims to bring together schools in nine Baltic Sea states (Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Russia) to find ways to jointly address environmental issues in the region. The purpose is to educate students and encourage them to become interested in the environmental issues of the region and to help them understand the scientific, social, cultural aspects of the interdependence of humanity and its environment. Exchange of information and experience on new environmental training methods, their implementation and promotion are encouraged. Lithuania chaired this project in the period of 2006-2009.