On 11 March, President of Latvia Egils Levits met with Anita Muižniece, Minister for Education and Science, at the Riga Castle to discuss the current situation in education sector, including state support and assistance for Ukrainian children and youngsters who have fled Ukraine and arrived in Latvia and need education. Other topics of the meeting included transition to education in official language and school network reform in Daugavpils.
Minister Muižniece presented the Ukrainian refugee children education access plan developed by Ministry of Education and Science to help children fleeing Ukraine. According to plan, Riga Ukrainian Secondary School will create parallel groups, while Ministry will develop customised distance learning programmes and general financial support schemes for schools accommodating Ukrainian refugee children. President of Latvia underlined the importance of following needs of Ukrainian diaspora when developing special Ukrainian refugee education programmes and attracting Ukrainian-speaking teachers also from among those who arrive in Latvia as refugees. Ukrainian children must be quickly integrated into our schools where Latvian is the only language of instruction, President Levits said.
President of Latvia expressed his support for Minister Muižniece’s initiative for switching to Latvian as the sole language of instruction in Latvian schools. Minister Muižniece and President Levits both stressed that complete transition to education in official language must be gradual. Moreover, law must be amended in the way that allows children to also choose additional elective courses in their home language.
Meeting also focused on education system reform plan developed by Daugavpils administration. President Levits will visit Daugavpils in scope of his regional visit in April, during which he will also go to Daugavpils 12th Secondary School.