Because of the shortage of teachers in Riga, it may be difficult to open 48 kindergarten groups, as LETA was informed by Riga City Council.
The biggest problems are currently observed for Riga 66th Pre-School Education Institution, where six groups are under risk. Riga 244th Pre-School Education Institution may not be able to open five groups, and Ozoliņš Kindergarten may not be able to open six.
Other kindergartens may experience difficulties opening one or two groups.
Riga City Council plans to continue looking for workers to fill in vacant jobs. Once new workers have been found, children will be able to join kindergarten groups.
In cooperation with the University of Latvia the municipality has initiated special activities for assistants in various pre-school education facilities in Riga who want to continue their careers as teachers.
With financial assistance from the municipality, assistant teachers will receive first level higher vocational education in the study programme Pre-school teacher.
90 future teachers have signed up for the first training course. This is an essential step to complementing human resources.
There are around 5 600 teachers working at various schools in Riga. 2 400 teachers work at various kindergartens. There are also 150 vacant teaching jobs available in schools and 70 in kindergartens around Riga.
Also read: 54% of Latvian families forced to save up or borrow money to send children to school