The General Jonas Zemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania (LKA) has opened an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) competence centre, Militarnyi reports. Defence Minister Laurynas Kasciunas said that the drone competence centre would teach how to fly drones and gain both theoretical and practical knowledge. LKA will organise both stationary courses in Vilnius and field courses in…
The number of job vacancies listed in Estonia totalled 9,908 in the second quarter of 2024, which was 11% less than a year earlier, according to data from Statistics Estonia, ERR reports. The total number of vacant and occupied jobs amounted to just over 609,000, with vacancies accounting for 1.6% of all employment positions. The…
Schools in Estonia have begun transitioning to education in Estonian under a plan approved by the country’s parliament, the Riigikogu, in December 2022, ERR reports. The transition will proceed gradually, with kindergartens and school grades one and four transitioning to fully Estonian education in 2024. Grades two and five will transition in 2025 and grade…
Schools in Latvia received bomb threats in Russian at the start of the new school year on 2 September 2024, LETA reports, citing TV3. Armands Ruks, chief of the State Police of Latvia, said that more than 200 emails with bomb threats were sent. He said that schools in all counties received such messages. While…
Thousands of foreign students will continue or begin their studies at universities in Latvia in the academic year 2024/2025, LSM reports. In 2023/2024, Latvian universities had over 10,000 foreign students from more than 100 countries. At the University of Latvia (LU), foreigners account for 7% of all students at the university. The number of foreign…
Estonia’s Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) has granted student visas to 646 foreigners for the academic year 2024/2025, ERR reports. Of the total, 65 are from China, 53 from the US, and 51 from Azerbaijan. PPA refused visas to 114 foreign students, including 28 from Nigeria, 22 from Pakistan, and 10 from India. The…
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.
Latvia’s Constitutional Court has upheld the constitutionality of the transition to school education in Latvian only, LETA reports. The transition follows legislative amendments passed in October 2022. The court found that weekly tuition in minority languages and cultural history sufficiently supports the preservation of minority identities. Earlier, the European Court of Human Rights supported the…
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda was inaugurated as president for a second term on 12 July 2024, LRT reports. In his inaugural address, Nauseda pledged to strengthen national security, defend Lithuanian interests in foreign policy, continue supporting Ukraine, and foster ties with the US. He called for raising Lithuania’s defence budget to 4% of GDP by…