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…
In the 2023/2024 school year, Latvian ninth-graders performed best in English exams, with an average score of 63.9%, and worst in mathematics, with an average score of 43.2%, according to data from the National Centre for Education (VISC), LETA reports. Both results were lower compared to the previous year, when students averaged 66.1% in English…
Lithuania’s Vilnius city municipality plans to stop offering Russian as a second foreign language to sixth-grade school students as of the academic year 2024/2025, LRT reports. Deputy mayor Arunas Sileris said that the municipality wanted to increase the availability of official EU languages at schools. Going forward, sixth-graders will be able to choose French, German,…
Teachers in Estonia began a nationwide strike on 22 January 2024 to press for higher pay, ERR reports. The Estonian Education Personnel Union (EHL) said that altogether 9,471 teachers at 330 general education schools were taking part in the strike. The number of strikers will almost double to 18,176 when kindergarten and vocational school teachers…
Lithuania’s Justice Minister, Ewelina Dobrowolska, warned against “populism” over the issue of Russian schools, BNS reported. Earlier, Education Minister Gintautas Jakstas suggested that Lithuania follow Estonia and Latvia in closing Russian schools. Speaking in an interview with Ziniu Radijas, Dobrowolska conceded that minority education faced challenges but insisted that they be dealt with by ensuring…
The Estonian Education Personnel Union (EHL) has called an open-ended general strike of education workers for 22 January 2024, ERR reports. Around 2,800 teachers in Tallinn will participate in the strike and another 500 in a sympathy strike. Meanwhile, teachers in Tartu will not take part in the general strike as they have signed a…
The number of school students learning Russian has declined by 25% in Estonia, ERR reports. An official at the Ministry of Education said that 59% of students in grades 4-6 learned Russian in the school year 2023/2024, which was down from 78% in the year before. Around 20% of students have switched from Russian to…
Lithuania’s Education Minister, Gintautas Jakstas, has proposed phasing out secondary education in Russian, following the Latvian and Estonian example, BNS reports. He suggests focusing on EU languages. The Ministry of Education is exploring ways to suspend Russian as a language of tuition, with a proposal expected soon. Jakstas emphasised that Russian schools would not be…