On 7 October, President of Latvia Egils Levits visited the Riga Classical Gymnasium to speak about the educational management in Riga, especially switch to Latvian as the main language of instruction.
President met with Riga City Education, Culture and Sports Committee and Education, Culture and Sports department leadership, Headmaster of the Riga Classical Gymnasium Romans Alijevs and teachers, as well as Headmaster of the Riga 34th Secondary School Nataļja Rogoļeva. They presented the education priorities of the Riga City and transition to education in official language. Educators also shared their experience of managing everyday school operations during the COVID-19 pandemic with President Levits.
On the transition to education in Latvian, Egils Levits underlined the need to ensure that young people are fully integrated into social life and the life of the nation.
Discussion then turned to school system development plans for 2027, quality of education and implementation of skills-based learning, school network optimisation, pre-school educational establishment development trends and reduction of nursery queues.
Support for smoother transition to education in Latvian was also discussed.
Amendments to the Education Law and General Education Law introduced on 2 April 2018 regulate gradual transition to education in official language. New requirements apply to upper secondary education programmes at private and public schools. Switch to new models ends this school year – 2021/2022. As far as primary education is concerned, gradual move to three minority education models with varying degrees of Latvian began on 1 September 2019.
Latvia gradually phases out general education programmes delivered only in minority language and will move completely to Latvian as the main language of instruction, while subjects based on minority language and identity will remain in the elective part of the curriculum.
Move to education in Latvian was implemented in steps: Year 10-11 made the switch on 1 September 2020, and Year 12 this September. From 2021/2022 all general education subjects on all secondary education levels are taught in Latvian. Minority languages, literature and subjects based on minority culture and history are taught in respective minority languages native to students.