National Audit Office: implementation of recommendations leads to improvements in water quality and education of children growing up in disadvantaged environments

The report on the implementation of recommendations prepared by the National Audit Office shows that positive developments are taking place in the implementation of the recommendations of the public audits aimed at ensuring the quality of drinking water and the participation of children growing up in disadvantaged environments in pre-school education.

"After assessing the progress made in implementing the public audit recommendations over the last six months, we found that positive developments are taking place in more than half of the target outcomes. The target of 95% of water points being tested for all mandatory indicators of drinking water has been achieved, the number of children from families at social risk participating in pre-school education is increasing, and the number of combined classes of 5-8 is decreasing in schools of general education", - says Mindaugas Macijauskas, Auditor General.

The report points out that measures have already been taken to improve the availability and quality of early rehabilitation services for children with developmental disorders, to systematically provide services to carers and adoptive parents to ensure the best interests of the child, and to simplify and increase the availability of personalised education for adults.

State and municipal institutions are taking steps to address the problems identified in public audits, but according to the auditors, not all measures are achieving the expected results. Compared to 2019, the level of pupils' mathematics achievement in basic education has worsened, the number of combined primary classes has increased, the provision of computers for learning is not increasing sufficiently, the employment rate of persons with disabilities is deteriorating, and the number of state and municipal institutions prepared to respond to emergencies is growing too slowly.

To improve these and other outcomes, public sector bodies need to take the necessary steps to link public performance to resources, to ensure evidence-based regulation, to encourage educators to improve the quality of education and pupils' achievement, and to ensure that the state delivers only the essential public services.

Information on the implementation of all audit recommendations is open to the public on the National Audit Office's website - available in Lithuanian at:
https://www.valstybeskontrole.lt/LT/post/3136/.