Candidates undergoing tests for prosecutor posts show a low level of education, which implies that Latvia’s education system is gradually degrading, said Latvian Prosecutor General Juris Stukāns at a meeting of Saeima’s Defence, Internal Affairs and Corruption Prevention Committee on Tuesday, the 21st of February.
For a long time the prosecution office has not been able to find candidates of appropriate education and skills to become prosecutors. Every year there are 35 vacant prosecutor posts in Latvia. According to Stukāns, difficulties with finding appropriate candidates are associated with critical demographic indexes and poor education levels of youngsters in Latvia.
«Every three months we organise selection processes and every time we fail to secure a sufficient number of qualified workers. For example, 70 candidates with higher education in law sign up. I’m sorry, but they cannot possibly have even a Bachelor’s degree, because what we see in tests is that they cannot even provide proper answers regarding basic elements of a criminal offence. What can I say? The education system has degraded to a very poor level,» said Stukāns.
The prosecutor general was also critical about the results of the recent state unified lawyer professional qualification exam – only 26% of students passed this exam.
«Results of this exam, which is meant to help select candidates to become the next prosecutors have been awful for the last three years,» the prosecutor general laments.
Considering the difficulties associated with finding new prosecutors, prosecution offices are forced to employ assistant prosecutors capable of performing simple functions to manage criminal proceedings. Stukāns hopes these assistants will be able to acquire appropriate qualification and become prosecutors in the future.
«The idea is training staff without increasing the number of active prosecutors,» added Stukāns.
The Office of the Prosecutor General regularly organises tests for prosecutors in training, and they show generally poor results. For example, there were instances when candidates had difficulty naming the day of restoration of independence of the Republic of Latvia, the age at which criminal liability goes into effect, or the year when Latvian joined NATO.