PRECONDITIONS FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE OF THE PROCESS OF MATURITY EXAMINATION

Researches of Maturity exams are usually restricted to the tasks of content analysis, thus maturity examinations are attached to the pedagogical field of study. However, the final examination is a complex phenomenon, being the task of content and its implementation process. Therefore, to fully assess the maturity exams, the administration cannot be forgotten. Final examination is a public service and, herewith, one of the public administration areas. For the reasons identified, as well as annually emerging problems of the organisation of maturity examinations and the lack of appropriate scientific researches on this issue, it was decided to carry out a research on the quality of the maturity examinations process and find out what affects the assurance of this quality. The goal of the research is to identify the preconditions of maturity examinations'process quality assurance in Lithuania. According to theoretical models, it was decided to investigate the quality of the maturity examination through the process itself, including the users of maturity examinations public service and its direct providers. In order to systematize and discuss the results, the following methods were used: analysis of scientific literature and legislation, data analysis, summarising, comparison, questionnaire and the structured interview. The review of scientific literature showed that the quality of maturity examinations as a public service is a correspondence of the regulated process and the consumers' expectations. Questionnaire results showed that the consumers are not satisfied with the preparation of facilities and the work of people engaged. According to the interviewed, the main problem of the maturity examinations is inappropriate session time. The comparison of the assessment process of the providers and the consumers revealed that they differ in the preparation of the facilities, employees' appropriate work and the session time. In this research is analysed the concept of the public service quality, the main principles of quality management and quality models, the maturity examination process, which is divided into three phases. Each stage presents the strengths and weaknesses identified by analysing law regulated procedures and the results of maturity examinations research. On the basis of the research results the quality assurance elements specific to each phase are established. On the whole, there can be made a maturity examination quality model and its impact identified.