The Combined List (AS) has prepared a proposal to improve the financing model for schools that will allow dozens of rural secondary schools to remain open, as concluded from the offer presented by Saeima deputy Česlavs Batnis.
The politician also says that the party’s proposal “will help preserve at least 50% of rural schools that are planned to be closed down”. The party has also submitted its proposal in more detail to the Ministry of Education and Science and Saeima’s Education, Culture and Science Committee. The party is prepared for a discussion of any compromise variant.
The party’s proposal provides for setting the appropriate number of pupils in primary and secondary schools in large cities and Pieriga municipalities, where population density is larger, to be set at 20. For county centres the required number of pupils in classes is to be set at 15, and for the countryside – ten pupils.
In counties and rural territories on the external European border, the appropriate number of pupils would be five, as suggested by AS.
Except for individual situation with special education programmes, AS proposes reorganisation to be performed in primary and secondary schools only if the number of pupils in rural areas goes down to five in a single class, and if the number of pupils decreases to three pupils in the classroom in the counties and rural areas at the external border of Europe.
AS puts an emphasis on qualitative data – national test and accreditation assessment.
When asked about availability of teachers to cover the class sizes proposed by the party, Batņa stressed there are good examples of regions in which there are enough teachers. He said there are no vacancies in Rudzātu secondary school Mersrags secondary school and Aglona secondary school.
The politician said that to determine the schools that do not have the quality, the Ministry of Education and Science have to look into their work results for the past three years. Before closing down any school, it is necessary to justify this decision with reliable data, said Batņa.
The Saeima deputy also presented the differentiated model for teachers’ pay. This proposal was submitted to the ministry and the Saeima committee for review as well.
As for other related topics, the Saeima deputy said that AS will definitely not support “undermining” the autonomy of private schools, which is something listed in the ministry’s plans.
Batņa explained that after studying the ministry’s proposed model, AS concluded that it is not good. This is why the ministry prepared its own proposal to improve the model. One of the problems, according to the politician, is that there were no discussions with municipalities about this model.
As previously reported, representatives of Latvian Prime Minister Evika Siliņa’s office, Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Environment Protection and Regional Development, Ministry of Economy and Ministry of Education and Science will be holding meetings with representatives of Latvian municipalities in the next two weeks to discuss the school network reform. Once discussions are done, this topic will be discussed in the ruling coalition.
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