Lithuania’s incoming centre-left government has revealed its draft programme for the next four years, LRT reports. The new coalition plans to focus on welfare, with more child benefits and better accessibility to health care and education. Also, the government may make changes to tax policy, moving towards progressive taxation. The new government plans to reverse…
Five schools in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, will take part in a pilot project to curb children’s use of smart devices, ERR reports. Ott Oja, head of Tallinn’s mental health action plan for children and youth, said that the city was developing the project in collaboration with researchers at Tallinn University’s Centre for Educational Psychology…
The Lithuanian government has launched a pilot scheme to combat the use of narcotics and smoking in schools, LRT reports. Seven schools in Vilnius, Klaipeda, and Alytus will take part in the pilot programme, placing students under closer surveillance. The aim is to develop a joint response plan to prevent drug use and smoking. The…
A four-year-old boy in Latvia died of diphtheria at the Children’s Clinical University Hospital (BKUS) in Riga on 16 September 2024, LSM reports. The boy was unvaccinated for the preventable disease. Four children, including two of the dead boy’s sisters, were treated for diphtheria at the hospital. The parents, who took the sisters out of…
Estonia’s Social Insurance Board (SKA) has cancelled child benefits for nearly 3,000 Estonian children who mostly live abroad since 2019, ERR reports. Signe Riisalo, Minister of Social Protection, pointed out that family benefits are only meant for people living in Estonia. People paying taxes in Estonia should not pay for benefits to people who do…
The Estonian government will impose a lower ceiling on parental benefits and a cap on sickness benefits as of 2026, ERR reports. The government will reduce the maximum rate for parental benefits from the current three times the average wage to twice the average wage. The cut will affect around 3,500 people annually, or about…
UAE-based messaging platform Telegram has deleted several channels and groups, including ones containing child pornography, following requests from Latvian State Police, LETA reports. However, Telegram has failed to provide information about the creators of the channels. The State Police noted that criminals in Latvia often use Telegram for planning and to sell illegal substances and…
Altogether 224,322 pupils in Latvia, including 20,657 first-graders, started their new school year on 2 September 2024, LETA reported. Latvia has 481 municipal and 75 private schools, including 224 primary schools and 197 secondary schools. The number of school teachers totals 25,879.
The share of children at risk of poverty in the Baltic States was lower than the EU average in 2023, according to Eurostat data, LSM reports. The statistics showed that as many as 21.7% of children under the age of 18 years in Lithuania were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2023, compared…