Education and Science, Labour-market, Latvia, Wages

Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis (Greens/Farmers) said at the government meeting today that a significant agreement has been reached on assessment of education quality.

The Latvian Trade Union of Education and Science Workers supported the regulations, proposing some technical amendments, while the Latvian Association of Large Cities objected to the quality criteria, saying that several schools in Latvia’s cities would have to be closed then.

The new regulations prepared by the Education and Science Ministry provide that schools will be assessed based on a number of criteria. One of them is the minimum number of pupils, while the other one of a primary importance will be the education quality.

The education quality criteria will include study contents, support to differentiation of the study process, equipment and material resources, physical environment, as well as results of the mandatory centralized examinations. The index of the centralized examination results will be calculated, using a special formula.

If the school meets the quality criteria, it will receive 100% state funding irrespective of the number of pupils in secondary school classes.

Decisions on allocating state funding to schools will depend on the education quality, but if the educational institution fails to meet the minimum requirements, the financing will not be cut at once. The school will receive a warning and the situation will be assessed repeatedly in a year.

The Education and Science Ministry by October 1, 2019, has to submit an informative report on the education quality monitoring system, including the quality criteria. The new financing system will come into force as of September 1, 2020.