One of the challenges facing parents in Lithuania today is how to identify the genuine elements of a good school, moving past the misconception that the programme itself is the guarantor of a quality institution. A school programme should be selected because it best aligns with the mission of the school and the values of the community it aims to serve. More importantly, a good school is one that feels good to be in, and successfully delivering that experience requires far more dedicated execution than simply adopting a curriculum framework.
An international programme is not a status symbol
International programmes are becoming increasingly visible in Lithuania, and this includes both public and private institutions. The two most popular are the International Baccalaureate and Cambridge International Education. There are currently 20 authorized IB World schools in Lithuania and almost as many in the process of pursuing IB authorization in favor of the Lithuanian national curriculum. The number of schools offering Cambridge International Education curriculum is also growing.
As of 2026, there are more than 10,000 schools offering Cambridge International Education to students and 6,000 schools offering IB programmes in over 160 countries. Both serve students in early childhood, primary and secondary, yet schools are best known for the final two years of their education journey.
University preparation is important and Cambridge International and IB are widely regarded as a gold standard from the perspective of university admissions officers. But there is so much more to facilitating a student’s educational journey. While educational programmes provide the what—the structure and curriculum—a truly good school distinguishes itself by achieving quality through dedicated execution. This requires effective implementation of programs, including the cultivation of culture, the quality of teaching, student support, collaboration between staff members, relevant learning, and the facilitation of parent-school partnerships in service of the student and teacher experience and outcomes.
Keeping all of these factors in balance is crucial to successful student outcomes, regardless of whether you are referring to schools running a national curriculum or an international programme.
What does it take to become an international school?
The road to becoming authorized to offer an international programme is labor intensive but relatively straight forward in that it is initially an exercise in compliance. Early in the process, external evaluators from the relevant institution review school documents checking to see if policies and procedures exist. The depth and breadth of a policy can differ dramatically between schools but there are some requirements that must hold such as philosophical alignment with the respective authorising organisation.
Ultimately, guiding statements such as mission and vision should promote international mindedness and strive to raise learners with a defined set of dispositions. How this is achieved also depends on the specific school. The real challenge for schools comes with implementation and demonstrated impact, not programme adoption. Authorization is not a static destination; it is a perpetual process of reflection, schoolwide collaboration, and strategic alignment that requires doing the work with integrity.
When thinking about curriculum, there is a significant misconception that all schools offering the same programme teach identical content and skills. For International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme and Middle Years Programmes, this is definitely not the case. Every school must actively develop its own bespoke curriculum using internal resources.
To become an IB primary or middle school the institution must honor a stated philosophy of teaching, learning and assessment. While there are guidelines for crafting specific unit elements like concepts and guiding questions, IB provides no common standards and the evaluation and authorisation process involves little external oversight with regard to how or how well content and skills are taught. This crucial responsibility is entirely left to the school to ensure that principles of teaching and learning, dispositions, and transdisciplinary content are integrated in an authentic and impactful manner.
The good news for all educators and parents is that the essential elements of this demanding implementation – clear vision, perpetual reflection, and ownership of the curriculum – are not exclusive to international programmes. Every school, whether running a national curriculum or an international framework, is empowered to define its own path to quality by embracing dedicated effort and a student-centered vision.
A good school must reframe priorities every year, and sometimes more often than that.
A good school balances organisational stability with a reflective and agile mindset. With the advancement of AI and the prevalence of digital devices in the social lives of our students, we need to be able to shift as frequently as Apple puts out a new iPhone. Last year our strategic focus for the year was on promoting cultural proficiency and this year we have already had to move from AI to transferring our attention to the intersection of cultural proficiency and digital literacy.
The following observations are drawn directly from my experience as an educator and the Director of Vilnius International School. In my twenty odd years working in education, the landscape has never felt more challenging. We have observed a subtle but significant shift in social values in just the last two years, where the ease of community support, agape (collective care), and foundational concepts like social cohesion and moral courage are increasingly difficult to cultivate. As our young people navigate an uncertain and volatile world, we see these vital dispositions – kindness, care, and deep empathy – at risk as their online lives disrupt their connection to the physical community and the natural environment.
According to education futurist, Will Richardson, education must shift its emphasis from merely preparing students to solve predetermined problems to helping them navigate complexity, chaos, and collapse.This requires developing capacities that can be cultivated alongside any programme, be it IB, Cambridge International or a national curriculum. He defines these capacities as emotional literacy, futures literacy, systems thinking, and relational intelligence.
For a school to be a truly good school, we must be willing to confront a growing crisis, and by that I mean openly addressing a rise in racism, anti-semitism and othering that is perpetuated by exposure to online vitriol. These are conversations that must supersede the curriculum, requiring us to stop and engage fully when they arise.
Confronting this is a heavy burden for schools, it requires an all-in approach intentionally designed to promote a lived mission and collective care. Sometimes it feels as though we are fighting windmills. However, by embracing the capacities defined by futurists – emotional literacy, systems thinking, futures literacy, and relational intelligence – we equip our students, and our institutions, to thrive in complexity rather than collapsing under it. In brief, emotional literacy promotes self management, systems thinking promotes deeper understanding of the interconnectivity of the world, futures literacy means promoting hope and confidence in the ability to intentionally shaping their world, and relational literacy is the capability to build relationships with others, something once taken for granted but now under threat in a digital era.
A good school can exist anywhere and run any academic programme, but it must aspire to be more than its curriculum framework.
The true measure of a quality institution lies not in the title of the programme it offers, but in its daily commitment to a few non-negotiable key elements. The challenge we face as educators is to keep these elements in balance while navigating a volatile world.
These non-negotiable elements include:
- Effective Implementation: Moving beyond initial compliance to dedicated execution school processes within and beyond the curriculum.
- Cultivated Culture: Fostering collective care (agape), belonging, and collaboration.
- Essential Capacities: Developing emotional literacy, systems thinking, futures literacy, and relational intelligence in all students.
- Moral Courage: Confronting crises like racism and anti-semitism, which is a daily conversation that must sometimes supersede the curriculum.
Regardless of whether a school follows the Lithuanian national curriculum, IB, or Cambridge International Education, if these foundational elements are prioritized – balancing academic rigor with a lived mission of collective well-being and a willingness to confront social complexity – students have the best possible chance to be successful and thrive.
Rebecca Toth Juras is the director of Vilnius International School.
Vilnius International School was founded in 2004 as an English medium school with a strong commitment to Lithuanian language and culture. VIS has been an authorised International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme for 15 years, an International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme for 13 years and a Cambridge International AS/A Levels for 9 years. Additionally, VIS is accredited by the Council of International Schools.
The choice of the IB PYP and MYP was the most relevant option for our school because it best reflected a progressive view of education and complimented the spirit of the time, when Lithuania was joining NATO and the European Union. The CIE AS & A Levels programme provides students an opportunity to study a limited number subjects in depth, capitalising on their strengths and areas of interest.
Rebecca Toth Juras
