Education and Training Monitor 2023

1. The teaching profession

Teacher shortages are becoming apparent, but precise data is missing. While no comprehensive figures are available, teacher shortages are being increasingly reported. In September 2018, a survey of 200 school leaders by the Society for Independent Education found that 65% of schools had a shortage of teachers. Before the start of the 2022/2023 school year around 2 000 open positions for full-time or part-time roles were reported in the national press. The tracking of vacancies at national level remains vague since historically the municipalities, which usually fund schools in Latvia, are responsible for this. The first-ever attempt to provide publicly accessible information on teacher shortages at national level involved the introduction of an interactive map of vacancies in spring 2022.This map was created under the ESF project Esi skolotājs (Be a teacher). However, the numbers lack accuracy because schools submit information on a voluntary basis. The total number of vacancies advertised in May 2022 was 952, falling to 394 in October 2022 and 376 in December 2022¹.

A consensus is emerging that policymakers need to be more proactive in addressing the problem. Policymakers have tended to rely on the fact that, as the number of children decreases, the number of teachers needed will decline accordingly, and the necessary student-teacher ratio will be achieved without targeted action. And indeed, Latvia’s school population (aged 0-16) is projected to shrink by almost a third (32.3%) by 2040 (EU average: 9.7%)². However, as a high share (36.9%) of Latvian teachers is approaching retirement age (Figure 1) the lack of new teachers entering the profession, if not addressed, may present a potential threat to ensuring adequate teacher availability within the next decade.

Figure 1: School teachers (ISCED 1-3) by age group, 2021

The government is taking steps to ease teacher shortages. In 2018, the government decided to temporarily ease requirements for teaching scientific subjects by allowing STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) university students to teach for a year in primary and secondary school, under the guidance of a mentor teacher. In 2020, to address the growing shortage of teachers, the government amended the regulations on the teaching profession and introduced alternative paths into teaching (See Box 1). Efforts are also being made to attract new teachers from other professions under the Esi skolotājs (Be a teacher) and Mācītspēks (Teaching force) initiatives.

Attrition in general education is a concerning issue. In Latvia, 38% of teachers report that they would like to leave teaching within the next five years (OECD average: 25%). In addition, it is also the younger cohort of teachers that aim to leave: 26% of teachers age 50 or less in Latvia would like to leave teaching in the next five years, well above the OECD average (14%). In terms of job satisfaction, the proportion of Latvian teachers who believe that teaching is a valued profession in society is higher than the EU average (23.3% vs 17.7%). However, only 65.4% of teachers say that if they could decide again, they would still choose to become a teacher, as compared to an EU-22 average of 77.6%³. Income reliability and job security appear to be strong influencing factors in choosing teaching as a profession.

In spite of continuous improvement, low statutory pay⁴ and workload contribute to making teaching relatively unattractive. The government has been gradually increasing teacher pay since 2016, when a new model for teacher remuneration was adopted. Under the new model, salaries for teachers have been calculated using a formula that takes into account the salary rate, the number of hours worked per week, and the workload. As a result, between 2016 and 2021 teacher salaries in Latvia increased by 59% compared to an OECD average of 18% - although they do remain lower than the international average⁵. In April 2023, the government amended Cabinet regulations to increase the lowest monthly salary rate for teachers and academic staff between 1 September 2023 and 31 December 2025, and to rebalance teachers’ workload. In addition, in order to agree on minimum requirements for workload adjustment, in June 2023 the government approved guidelines on balancing the workload for all groups of educators, including support staff, in cooperation with social partners. The government’s recent switch from the 'money follows the student' approach in favour of a funding system based on the number of students in each municipality (European Commission 2022) could help reduce differences in pay and working conditions between schools, as well as improve overall quality⁶. However, it is still too early to assess the impact of the new system.

While starting salaries are fixed by law, top salaries are not pre-defined. However, they cannot exceed the lowest salary rate by more than 50%. School leaders have autonomy in deciding on most allowances and salary supplements such as performance-related bonuses, paid overtime and extra activities, which can amount to 50% of a teacher’s basic pay. As a result, lower secondary teachers teach on average 46% more than the 30 hours a week statutory teaching time, the highest difference between statutory and real teaching time among the OECD countries for which data is available.

Continuing professional development (CPD) is compulsory for teachers of all levels. Teachers must undergo 36 hours of professional development every 3 years. There are many types and formats of CPD in use, but their comparative effectiveness has not been measured.

2. Early childhood education and care

Participation in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is almost universal for children aged between 3 and the start of compulsory education, but enrolment of younger children is lower. In 2021, 94.5% of 3-6 year-olds were enrolled in ECEC, well above the EU average of 92.7%, and not far below the EU-level target of 96% by 2030⁸. The share of children under 3 enrolled in formal childcare services grew from 31% in 2021 to 32.7% in 2022, but remains below the EU average of 35.7%⁹.

Ensuring an adequate offer of quality ECEC remains a priority. Latvia’s Education Law stipulates that all children are legally entitled to a place in ECEC from the age of 18 months. However, there is a shortage of public places for ECEC in some areas, especially in municipalities close to Riga, and long waiting lists. This can disproportionally affect lower-income families who have less access to private alternatives due to the relatively higher costs. The government’s Guidelines on the development of education for 2021-27 include the goal to improve the accessibility of ECEC for 1-4 year-olds.

The number of private pre-schools is growing, particularly in the capital Riga. According to Latvia’s central statistical bureau, at the beginning of the 2021/2022 school year, 99 500 children participated in pre-school education programmes - 83.8% in Latvian and 15.3% in Russian-speaking programmes. While most children are enrolled in public pre-school facilities, over 11% of the total number are enrolled in private ones. Compared to 2020/2021, the number of pre-schools has risen from 643 to 651 and the number of private pre-schools from 147 to 155. Over the past decade, the number of private pre-schools in Riga has tripled¹⁰.

3. School education

The proportion of early leavers from education and training (ELET) is well below the EU average, and shows a marked reduction in gender disparities over the years. In 2022, the ELET rate among 18-24 year-olds was at 6.7%, down from 7.3% the previous year and below both the EU average of 9.6% and the EU-level target of less than 9% by 2030. The share remains higher in rural areas, at 9%. Men are still more than twice as likely as women to be early leavers from education and training (9.3% as compared to 4%). However, over the years the male ELET rate has been falling steadily and at a much faster pace than the female rate (-7.4 pps and -3 pps respectively since 2010). This has resulted in a progressive reduction of the gender gap, from 8.4 pps in 2010 to 5.3 pps in 2022 even though it remains higher than the EU average of 3.1 pps.

More than a fifth of fifth-graders are low achievers in reading. According to the results of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2021, 22% of Latvian fifth-graders¹¹ reach at most the low international benchmark in reading competence, while only 8% reach a top performance (i.e. the advanced international benchmark). Girls outperform boys by 28 points, a significant gender gap that tends to persist across educational cycles, as consistently shown also by the results of the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which assesses the reading competence of 15-year-olds.

Socio-economic status is positively associated with reading performance, albeit to a relatively limited extent. On average, the performance difference in PIRLS between children with a higher socio-economic status and those with a lower one is 66 points¹². The 2018 round of PISA testing showed a similarly contained difference in reading performance between 15-year-olds with a high and a low socio-economic background, indicating that the education system struggles with equity challenges.

The spread of bullying and unhealthy situations gives cause for concern.Exposure to frequent bullying (about weekly, reported by 13.7% of students) is associated with a lower reading performance. Frequently bullied students obtain an average PIRLS score of only 483 points, almost 60 points lower then those who report no exposure to bullying. Similarly, children who are exposed to cyberbullying tend to have a much weaker reading performance than those who are not (European Commission, 2023). In terms of well-being, around half of children often experience unhealthy situations, such as feeling tired (51%) or hungry (49%) when they arrive at school. While the data can provide no explanation for the underlying causes, it does indicate that many children experience conditions that can have detrimental effects on their well-being. Those conditions are also negatively associated with reading performance, in particular feeling hungry (21.5-point difference). These findings suggest that any effective policy aimed at improving basic skills proficiency needs to address a variety of factors beyond teaching.

The government has taken several steps to encourage municipalities to streamline their school networks. In addition to the new financing principle for schools introduced in 2022 (see Section 2), combined with new minimum quality criteria for schools to continue to receive state funding (European Commission, 2022), the government has also extended the deadline for municipalities to apply for investment opportunities to reorganise secondary schools (i.e Years 1-12) into basic education schools (i.e. Years 1-9). More than EUR 30 million are available for this purpose through the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility. The government’s plan is to encourage municipalities to build strong basic education schools outside big cities by making sustainable investments in the development of a modern and energy-efficient environment, learning technologies and provision, as well as in sustainable infrastructure¹³.

The progressive consolidation of the school network could also contribute to a more efficient use of resources. Government expenditure on education remained above the EU average in 2021, both as a share of GDP (5.6% against an EU average of 4.9%) and as a proportion of total government expenditure (12.6% against an EU average of 9.4%), but maintaining a large and inefficient school network weighs on resource allocation. A comparatively high share of Latvia’s education budget was spent on intermediate consumption (18.5%) and on gross capital formation (14%), well above the EU averages of 13.1% and 7.4% respectively, while teacher salaries accounted for 62.5% of education expenditure, compared to an EU average of 64.5%¹⁴. The 2023 budget increases funding for education and science by more than EUR 180 million, to ensure salary increases for teachers, promote excellence in higher education, and increase science and research capacity for economic transformation.

4. Vocational education and training

The attractiveness of vocational education and training (VET) in Latvia is improving. In 2021, four out of 10 pupils (i.e. 43.3%) in medium-level education took part in vocational programmes, an increase of 4.0 pps from 2020. The employment rate of VET graduates has also improved, from 70.2% in 2020 to 75.2% in 2022 (EU average: 76.4%). Moreover, the total number of VET upper-secondary and post-secondary students has increased to 24,1203 and 3,477 respectively in 2021 (compared to 23,295 and 3,28023 in 2020).

Latvia continues to modernise VET in line with labour market needs. The national implementation plan prepared in response to the 2020 Council Recommendation on VET and the Osnabrück Declaration¹⁵ includes several objectives for modernising VET in Latvia. More specifically, it aims to: (i) increase the attractiveness of the teaching profession; (ii) ensure education and training offer is relevant to modern developments and closes the digital skills gap, providing the necessary skills to the labour market; (iii) provide inclusive and safe education to all; (iv) increase participation of adults in learning to 12% by 2027; and (v) improve quality management systems at institutional and national level.

Latvia has taken steps to increase the flexibility of VET. These include: (i) amendments to the Vocational Education Law in 2022; (ii) continued efforts to increase flexibility of VET by improving regulation on modular vocational education programmes, as well as the principles, and procedures for accumulating, transferring and recognising the achieved learning outcomes; and (iii) documents certifying the acquisition of parts of professional qualifications. Latvia has also been working on boosting apprenticeship in formal VET, promoting sustainable collaboration mechanisms for apprenticeship and implementing work-based learning.

VET curricula were adapted to labour market needs in collaboration with social partners and other stakeholders. With the support of EU funding, the project on improving the sectoral qualification system for better VET quality was completed in 2022. It revised 14 sectoral qualification frameworks including construction, electronics, digital, energy, wood, chemical, metalworking, food and other industries. It also supported the development of 202 new occupational standards and professional qualifications, 206 professional qualification exams accompanied by a methodology, and 185 modular VET programmes based on learning outcomes.

Latvia is raising digital competences through VET. As part of its recovery and resilience plan, Latvia has recently adopted amendments to the national higher education standards (in force as of 1 January 2023) ensuring that 'the graduates of each study programme can responsibly and safely choose and apply/use information technologies in their professional activities, research, and lifelong learning, as well as acquire, create and share digital content.'

5. Higher education

The proportion of young adults with a tertiary educational qualification is high, but a wide gender gap persists. In 2022, 45.9% of Latvian 25-34 year-olds had a tertiary educational qualification, above both the EU average of 42% and the EU-level target of 45% by 2030. But while young women’s tertiary educational attainment (TEA) rate (57.1%) is significantly above the EU average of 47.6%, the TEA rate for men is slightly below the EU average (35.2% vs 36.5%). The resulting gender gap is among the widest in the EU (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Gender gap (women - men) in tertiary attainment rate (25-34 years) in 2022 (percentage points difference)

The share of STEM graduates remains comparatively low, particularly among women. Over half of 2021 graduates¹⁶ obtained qualifications in business or law (27.4%), health or welfare studies (18.5%) and social sciences (9.2%). Overall, among 2021 graduates, 19.4% of the total obtained a STEM qualification, slightly less than in 2016 (20.5%) and well below the EU average of 25.4%. Women represented almost 65% of all 2021 graduates, but only 31.8% of STEM graduates. This indicates that while women are more likely than men to complete tertiary education, they are rather less likely to opt for a STEM degree¹⁷. On a positive note, the share of ICT graduates is increasing steadily and remains well above the EU average (5% vs 4.2%). Latvia faces a shortage of highly skilled workers due to its low proportion of STEM graduates¹⁸ and the unattractiveness of academic careers. The lack of researchers and PhD graduates¹⁹ is one of the main barriers to strengthening the Latvian R&I system especially in the private sector. The Latvian recovery and resilience plan introduces various reforms of the higher education system that aim to align university courses with industrial needs and to increase the attractiveness of research careers.

The employment rate of recent tertiary graduates continued to grow in 2022 and is moving closer to pre-pandemic levels. After a sharp fall in 2019-2020 ²⁰, the employment rate of recent graduates²¹ in the 20-34 age group has been growing steadily and reached 94.9% in 2022, up almost 5 pps compared to 2021 (90%). While still below pre-pandemic levels, the rate is among the highest in the EU and remains significantly above the EU average of 86.7%. This is in stark contrast to the employment rate of VET graduates²² in the same age group, which in 2022 stood at 75.2%, well below the EU average of 79.7% and almost 20 pps lower than that of their tertiary-educated peers.

6. Adult learning

Latvia is addressing key adult learning challenges in its current policy framework, and participation rates have risen significantly in recent years. According to the Labour Force Survey, participation of 25-64 year-olds in education and training during the preceding 4 weeks increased from 6.6%²³ in 2020 to 9.7% in 2022, nearly reaching the 10% target for 2024 set out in the 'Future Skills for a Future Society' action plan for 2021-2023. According to the 2021-2027 Education Development Guidelines, Latvia will reach a 12% adult participation rate by 2027, still below the EU 2020 target of 15%. Other policy objectives include: (i) improving links between higher and professional education; (ii) introducing skills funds and individual learning accounts; and (iii) strengthening work-based learning, and the recognition of qualifications and skills.

Nevertheless, some systemic challenges remain. The biggest barriers to adult learning in Latvia remain poor access to funding, lack of time off work and family responsibilities. Teacher and trainer shortages are also evident. While training courses are provided by companies, 70% of employers report that they often or quite often lack skilled workers and 85% of employers report that they face difficulties in finding 'good' employees. Salaries for educators remain low compared to professions with similar levels of qualification requirements (e.g. psychologists), while the ability of teachers and trainers to better understand the needs of adult learners needs improvement.

EU funding is important for boosting adult learning and digital skills. In 2021, only 51% of Latvia’s population had at least basic digital skills (EU average: 54%), while among the low-skilled (42%) and the unemployed (46%) the proportion was even lower. To address this, Latvia invested over EUR 45 million of ESF and national funds in lifelong learning between 2017 and 2023, enabling 11 000 individuals to attend 'enhancing digital skills' programmes in 2023. In 2021-2027, approximately EUR 52 million in ESF+ funding will support adult learning. Moreover, through the Future Skills initiative, Latvia continues to support adult participation in internationally recognised online training courses (Coursera, EdX, Futurelearn, etc.) in cooperation with the private sector and higher education institutions. Finally, under its national recovery and resilience plan, Latvia will develop and pilot Individual Learning Accounts involving indigital skills, aimed at training 3 500 individuals by mid 2026, as well as a new approach for non-formal self-managed training of 1 000 ICT specialists by 2026.