Bendrojo ugdymo mokyklos vaidmuo vaiko teisių apsaugos sistemoje

Licencinė sutartis Nr. MRU-EDT-1352.

Title of the final thesis – The Role of General Education Schools in the Child Rights Protection System. Aim of the research– investigate the role of general education schools in (the) child protection legislation framework. Paper objectives: 1. On the basis of scientific literature present the concepts of child protection legislation, child protection legislation framework; 2. Perform an analysis, based on international and national legal acts, in order to discern how effectively child protection legislation is being implemented. 3. Perform an analysis of the child protection institution in Lithuania in order to discern its efficiency; 4. Perform an investigation revealing the role of Vilnius district general education schools in the child protection legislation system from the perspective of guidance counselors. The objective of the paper was achieved through the analysis of scientific literature and legal acts, and a qualitative study using the method of semi-structured interviews for data collection. The sample for qualitative content analysis was selected based on predetermined criteria and the convenience principle. 7 interviews have been performed with guidance counselors working in Vilnius district general education schools. The analysis of research data has been performed using the (Content) method. Theoretical analysis of data revealed the concepts of the child and child rights protection in historical context, understanding the social and psychological sphere of the child, and the importance of the changed legal status of the child. The legislative base clearly defines the responsible institutions at the state and municipal levels, which aim for the implementation of child rights. he importance of interaction and function sharing among all institutions in the child rights protection system, including general education schools, is emphasized. It was revealed that the Lithuanian education system encompasses various educational areas and functions, based on inter-institutional cooperation. The educational vision anticipates that every child should have opportunities for holistic education, aiming to develop the educational system. The school is the social environment where the child spends most of their time, making it crucial to ensure children's safety and welfare, including physical and psychological security, and to reduce social risk factors. Despite the educational vision, educational institutions face various problems directly impacting the assurance of child rights and legitimate interests. The empirical part of the investigation revealed that children are not properly introduced to legislation pertaining to their rights and duties, lacking sources of information, children are not interested in information being provided by primitive methods. Schools face resistance from parents when attempting to provide help to a child, bullying among children, harmful use of psychoactive substances by children, and poor school attendance. The most common difficulties are attempted to be resolved within the school, without transferring information to responsible institutions. General education schools only partially effectively participate in the child rights protection system, as it becomes apparent that schools lack specialists who would provide assistance to children in implementing their rights. Teachers lack competencies in working with children, due to which necessary information is not passed on to responsible institutions. Frequent inter-institutional disagreements have a negative impact on the assurance of child rights, as child interests remain sidelined, moving away from the main goal of implementing child rights protection. The study highlighted the need to strengthen the entire school community for effective implementation of child rights protection and identified a need for specific measures.