Išsilavinimo pasiekimų nelygybė Lietuvoje: matavimo galimybės ir problemos ; Inequality in educational attainment in Lithuania: the application of Gini index

Mesa (2007), Brendler (2008) in their studies raise the problem of defining the levels of educational achievement in the comparative analysis and the problem of defining the variable of educational resources, the dis tribution of which is to be measured in the society. Brendler revealed that the educational achievements were fairly equally distributed in societies with a high level of education, such as Japan, if the number of years of education was applied. This is because nearly all residents are educated to a certain level. Brendler therefore applied a different approach: he gave more weight to the higher levels of education, which effectively form the inequality in the educational achievements in society. This Brendler's ins ight is used when applying the Gini for measuring inequality in educational achievements in Lithuania. Mesa's (2007) method of dis tribution of inequality in educational achievements according to educational achievement subgroups' contribution to overall inequality in the country is als o applied. For the calculation of the Gini index, the Peders en formula (1999) is used. As it was mentioned, 2006-2008 Household survey data was used to measure inequality in educational achievements in Lithuania. The reasons for the selection of this period were: the availability of the databases for these years; the timeframe of conducting of the research (in 2009); the availability of the variables for constructing the indicators of social justice in education; the wish of the Lithuanian Ministry of Education and Science to use these databases; and finally the Lithuanian Statistical Agency did not conduct the Household Survey in 2009.