On 3 December, President of Latvia Egils Levits met with board of Latvian Educational Leadership Association (LELA) at the Riga Castle to discuss current challenges in education. President of Latvia thanked teachers for remaining strong in these last two years and meeting all the novel teaching challenges that occurred.
President pointed out that it is essential to ensure close coordination and efficient decision-making mechanisms for long-term support of ‘Computer for every child’ by all stakeholders: ‘Mission of this project is crystal clear. One cannot learn future skills without appropriate technology for learning. Digital divide must be bridged. We must give computers to vulnerable groups of society that struggle with technology. This is not about buying computers. It is about creating a sustainable mechanism that replaces outdated computers regularly, services workstations and gives clients access to computer training.’
LELA board members underlined the benefits of this project and invaluable support it gives to many Latvian families. They also encouraged to focus on fast and stable access to internet across Latvia in addition to procurement of computer hardware. Efficient broadband connection is often an obstacle for households and education providers alike, said LELA board members.
President and LELA talked about Egils Levits’ initiative to introduce teaching of one of the official European Union (EU) languages as the second foreign language across Latvian schools. ‘If you know the language, you become part of its information frameworks. We are an EU member state, and our people should primarily be integrated with European ideas, discourse and knowledge frameworks. Language also strongly determines our understanding of the geopolitical context around us. We create the future of our country today, and sometimes you have to be bold to achieve certain goals in the long run,’ President Levits said.
Meeting also focused on shortage of teachers, raising teachers’ prestige and competitiveness, higher standards of professional qualification schemes, typology of education providers and inclusive education approaches.
LELA was represented by its President Rūdolfs Kalvāns, Vice-president Iveta Bērziņa, Jeļena Vediščeva, Edgars Grīnis, Māra Svilāne, Aija Voitišķe, Elita Rītere and Laila Urbāne.