Dear teachers, entrepreneurs and enthusiasts of quality education!
It is a great pleasure to be here today to welcome the winners of the Excellence Award.
Biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics - these subjects explain the world and ourselves. They teach children critical thinking, as well as logic and analysis; they teach them to understand the world and not to believe in magical explanations, armchair’ expert videos online and fake news. It is extremely important that this rational outlook is present in our young people when they graduate from secondary school, and it is precisely the task of teachers of these subjects.
I am also very happy that for the second time German language teachers are also participating in the Excellence Award. German is near and dear to my heart, it is my study language and for some time my working language. It is a language with a very wide and deep information space, so it is important for us to learn it.
In my speech to the Saeima today I mentioned that we are in the European space, not the Russian space. Therefore, we must quickly ensure that the second foreign language after English is one of the official languages of the European Union - German, French, Spanish or another. Language embodies the informational and cultural space we exist in, so language teaching in schools must be appropriate to the situation and space in which Latvia finds itself.
I also said that our education system has adopted the competency-based approach for several years. It has had a lot of success because it is different from the classical approach. Now that some experience has been gained, it is time to critically assess what is good and what needs to be continued and where we need to make some adjustments. That is why I think it is necessary to make it a formal requirement that high school graduates have a basic understanding of at least one of your subjects - mathematics, physics, chemistry, or biology. At least in one of them, because, as I said, these subjects help us understand the world rationally. I also think that all young people who graduate from high school should have basic knowledge of the world and Latvian history, as well as civic skills. To a large extent, it is the case already, but it partially depends on the interests and skills of the teacher. This should not be the case; there must be a national policy that ensures this result.
Dear teachers!
You educate the young generation and discover the talents of young people. Although there are a lot of talented people in these subjects, we see that there is a lack of students studying these subjects. The talents are there, and the opportunities are there, but the economy and the labour market are not adequately rewarding the people pursuing these subjects.
You inspire young people to discover the world through these subjects, through language, and in this way you are laying the foundations for our future society.
Our students do well in international Olympiads and competitions, but this is one of the few events where teachers are rewarded. Thank you to those who nominated teachers for this award! Thank you so much, dear teachers, for the work you do!
