Latvia: Report: Part III: Prospects

The EFA 2000 Assessment: Country Reports
Latvia

21. FUTURE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE "EDUACTION FOR ALL" PROGRAM

Lavians characteristically exhibit a high level of involvement and participation in education; basic education is mandatory, secondary education is nationally funded and available to all residents.

Adult illiteracy and discrimination against women in education are not pressing problems in Latvia, and no future projects will be concerned with these issues.

The most significant measures to be taken in improving the educational system as a whole and, by extension, the "Education for All" program, are:

Raising the level of quality of education;
Guaranteeing every resident of Latvia the availability of a qualitative basic education to meet today’s demand;
100% enrollment of school age children;
Enforcing the mandatory nature of pre-school education;
Guaranteeing mandatory primary education to assure the readiness of all children entering basic school;
Guaranteeing effective use of financial resources;
Raising the educational level of teachers.

Taking into account the existing reforms and related problems, the "Latvian Educational Strategy 1998 – 2003" proposes the following as goals for the educational system in Latvia and, by extension, for the "Education for All" project:

To guarantee educational quality, versatility and diversity so as to allow Latvia to produce qualified, creative individuals, specialists in their field, who believe in continued education;
To raise the quality of education, to fully develop a national educational standard for all subjects and all programs of study, to implement contemporary educational methodology and information technology in education, to develop a system of optimally objective evaluation of student progress, achievement and skill level as demanded by today’s social and economic conditions;
To develop an effective base of information technology and communications linking all educational facilities in Latvia;
To create a well-balanced, coordinated and economically based system of
complete educational development at all levels.
To define guidelines for spending related to construction and renovation so as to allow for more effective use of financial resources.
To create a flexible and qualitative system of continuing education and professional development of educational personnel.

Goals in the area of the protection of children’s rights:

To guarantee the protection of children’s rights in accordance with international standards and legal procedure;
To distribute authority among the government, local and regional jurisdictions and non-government organizations.

Goals in pre-school education:

To enforce mandatory pre-school education for all five- and six-year olds;
To develop suggested methodology for teachers and parents of pre-school age children;
To establish a national Pre-school Education Centres as well as regional consulting centres;
To properly train teachers for work with pre-school age children;
To guarantee the necessary federal funding;
To develop bilingual pre-school programs.

Goals in general education:

To assure that general education meets the needs of individuals and the demands of society, to orient general education programs away from accumulating knowledge to practical application of that knowledge in every day situations;
To develop and implement a single social science cycle (mutual co – ordination of academic course standarts in history, geography, civics, economics etc.);
To develop of minority education programmes (development of optional parts in the course related to the studies of the culture, history, traditions and native language of minority);
To develop and implement national standards of basic and secondary education;
To develop a unified system of requirements for basic and secondary education and to propose curriculum reforms for the next 10 years;
To implement four directions of study in general secondary education.

Goals in student progress evaluation:

To combine the final basic exams with high school and professional secondary school entrance exams;
To develop a system of evaluating student progress in special education;
To develop a data base of student achievement for every academic year in every academic program of study.

Goals in implementing a "program of study" approach in general education:

To develop and implement programs of study in pre–school education, basic education, special education and minority education;
To establish a registry of programs and a system of program licensing.

Goals in effective administration and quality control in general education:

To coordinate the accreditation of individual educational facilities and programs; to promote the development of a system of self-evaluation on the part of schools;
To define the functions, duties, rights and responsibilities of general education support facilities such as the Educational Curriculum and Examination Centre, the Teacher Education Support Centre, the National Pre-school Education Centre, and the National Education Inspection;
To coordinate the accreditation of general education facilities and programs;
To organize the certification procedures for teachers and facility directors;

To promote the involvement of teachers, school directors and community organizations in the educational system;
To implement the Information Technology in Education project; to improve the procedures for the drafting and ratification of resolutions.

Goals in development of regional school boards and assuring their functional efficiency:

To establish permanent regional educational organizations, which would oversee the administrative, developmental and quality control functions of regional facilities and which would guarantee the residents of that region access to qualitative general and professional education programs;
To establish independent regional school boards, which oversee the administration, development and quality control of general education programs and which guarantee the residents of that region the availability of qualitative general and professional education opportunities;
To establish regional pre-school and special education centres;
To organize the network of educational facilities in Latvia, to increase the number of public high schools and regionally run educational facilities.

Goals in special education:

Special needs children are given the opportunity to receive an education and the necessary training to become contributing members of society at any educational facility, assuring that their special needs will be met;
To establish the National Special Education Centre;
To ensure an economically – grounded financing of special education;
To establish development centres corresponding to each special education classification group thus propelling integration processes.

Goals in raising teachers’ salaries:

Within three years, by January 1, 2002, to enforce the provision of the 1998 Education Law, which states that the minimum salary for a teacher with the lowest level of professional qualification is to be no lower than the sum of two minimum monthly salaries.

To abolish ineffective spending of monies earmarked for teachers’ salaries and to add the monies thus saved to teachers’ salary funds.

To enforce student minimums required for each class – 10 per class in rural basic schools, 20 per class in urban basic schools; 15 per class in rural secondary schools, 25 per class in urban secondary schools;
To merge classes at rural basic schools (Stage I) and to provide the necessary training for teachers;
To form joint classes in Basic Stage I, preparing teachers accordingly;
To increase the number of classroom hours per week;
To establish a system of evaluating the work of homeroom teachers as well as a system of compensation;
To establish and implement regulations and standards pertaining to the financing of general education.

Goals in specialty education:

To reform financing of speciality education;
To move to a system of regional financing based on enrollment and cost per student;
To establish an annual subsidy to assure the children and youth of Latvia with leisure time opportunities.

Goals in teachers’ education and continuing education:

To develop an effective and qualitative system of continuing education for teachers;
To rework teachers’ qualifications and requirements based on new developments in education;
To provide training of bilingual teachers training colleges;
To develop in – training courses for bilingual teachers;
To set government quotas for number of teachers produced annually and how many are to complete continuing education programs each year;
To guarantee that 35% of existing teachers are fully qualified every year;
To establish a national, regional and institutional system of continuing education courses;
To establish an Innovation Fund to reward the efforts of creative teachers.

END