The way we organize schooling has remained largely unchanged for many years. Research shows that many students are disengaged from school. The traditional education model, which focuses primarily on classroom-based knowledge transfer, is struggling to keep pace with a rapidly changing world and often fails to highlight real career opportunities for students or teach competencies. At the same time, many citizens are dissatisfied with the education system but lack the tools to contribute to its improvement.
We aim to change this by modernizing the education system and moving at least 10% of lessons beyond the school building and into urban spaces. We are introducing an educational model that encourages schools to creatively use a wide range of spaces across Vilnius, combining traditional classroom learning with lessons outside the classroom—not only in parks or on streets, but also in companies and public institutions throughout the city.
The project targets more than 85,000 students in grades 1–12 from all 170 schools in Vilnius, along with their 6,000 teachers. It also involves local institutions and companies, offering them an opportunity to strengthen their social responsibility through the platform. While learning outside the classroom is not a new idea, the scale at which Vilnius is implementing it is unique.
The most visible part of the project is the platform www.vilniusyramokykla.lt, which was launched in January 2023. It connects teachers with all organizations participating in the project and is designed to be highly user friendly and intuitive. Any teacher or organization can create and easily upload their own unique lesson, lesson plans, and materials. Teachers can then choose the most suitable lessons from a wide collection offered across different locations in the city, directly register for lessons hosted by institutions, or reserve spaces for their own activities.
There are three ways to use the platform:
1) Book hosted lessons in workplaces, museums, laboratories, or public spaces that are delivered by partner institutions;
2) Use ready to teach lesson plans that require no registration—teachers simply download the materials and conduct the class in the most appropriate location;
3) Book spaces in partner institutions and deliver teachers’ own lessons there.
As a result of this innovation, students see how their curriculum connects to real life examples—experiences they would never encounter in a traditional classroom. They learn mathematics at the State Data Agency of Lithuania; study language with journalists from one of the country’s largest news outlets; explore ecology by playing basketball at the Vilnius Waste System Administrator; learn emergency preparedness with the Ministry of Defense; and engage in hundreds of other unique learning experiences.
With only an idea, Vilnius participated in the Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors’ Challenge in 2021, competing against more than 600 cities and winning USD 1 million for implementation. This achievement gave the project significant public visibility and accelerated its growth. Now, after three years, all schools in Vilnius are registered on the platform, 85% of teachers have created their own accounts, over 50,000 students have participated in expert-led lessons from various institutions, over 160 partners have joined the initiative with engaging lesson ideas, and lesson materials have been downloaded over a half million times.
A major challenge was cultural: redefining learning outside the classroom as an equal, high‑quality lesson rather than a simple excursion. To address this, we trained 1,000 teachers—a significant proportion of the city’s entire teaching workforce—through a hands‑on, 40‑hour professional development program. We also recognize and celebrate the most active teachers and schools, building a strong network of ambassadors who promote the project citywide.
Momentum has also grown among partner institutions. All partner‑led lessons are provided completely free of charge as part of their social responsibility to the city. Every month, new organizations join the project—ranging from banks and news agencies to start‑ups and ministries—continuously expanding learning opportunities for students.
While designing the project, we continuously consulted teachers, schools, and companies to better align it with their needs. Teachers highlighted a key challenge of outdoor learning: it can be tiring and difficult to teach in open spaces when not all students can hear clearly, and valuable teaching time is often lost while walking between locations.
To address this, we introduced a practical solution—providing a set of audio guide equipment to every municipal school (with larger schools receiving two sets). Each set includes a microphone for the teacher and earpieces for students, ensuring smooth interaction. In practice, this allows students to hear their teacher clearly even when spread across large areas, enables teachers to use walking or public transport time effectively, and improves overall classroom management. Schools and teachers have shared very positive feedback, noting that the equipment is both useful and suitable for different weather conditions.
We are also continuously updating the platform. One of the key improvements is a built-in tool that allows schools to record the number of outdoor lessons conducted each month. This feature helps us track the overall scope of learning that takes place outside the classroom. Since teachers often organize outdoor lessons outside our platform, this update makes it possible to log all outdoor lessons in one place.
If you’re a teacher in Vilnius: create an account on our platform in just one minute, choose from a wide range of unique lessons, and either deliver the lesson yourself using plans and materials shared by fellow teachers or book a partner-led lesson in just two clicks.
If you’re an institution in Vilnius: create an account in one minute, upload your lesson descriptions and available time slots, confirm bookings from registered teachers, and deliver the lessons.
If you’re a teacher elsewhere: explore our constantly growing library of lessons, translate materials using online tools if needed, adapt the content to your local context, and deliver more engaging lessons outside the classroom.
