The Ministry of Education and Culture refers to the statement of the United Kingdom’s National Center for Diplomatic Studies (UK ENIC) that there is autonomy of higher education institutions in determining admission requirements, and this is dealt with by the specific country that wants to influence the review processes.
Latvian Television’s news program “Panorāma” previously reported that six years ago it was already concluded that Latvian secondary school graduates are discriminated against on their way to obtaining a prestigious education. Currently, the Latvian diploma is valid at Cambridge University, but the Latvian secondary education certificate will still be rejected at Oxford University.
The Ministry explained that this situation has arisen because for many years the number of hours in Latvian secondary education for each subject has not been sufficient to meet the requirements in Great Britain. Due to the large number of subjects, up to 210 hours of study were available for each subject in the total load. In the UK, more than 300 hours are required to study each subject.
Therefore, increasing the number of hours in each subject was one of the goals when the improved content was introduced three years ago. Currently, the number of hours has become significantly higher – up to 420 hours are planned for learning mathematics at an optimal level. As the ministry stated, the in-depth selection brings Latvia closer to the so-called A-level exam, which is recognized in Great Britain.
