The “hunting” of teachers has become a regular activity of many Latvian school principals. Language teachers in European countries are distinctly rare trophies. Last year, with the help of the students’ parents, the director of the Kocēni elementary school, Māris Bušmanis, came to see such a German language teacher. Starting from 2026/2027 school year, Russian as a second foreign language will be eliminated. However, it is currently unclear who will teach the children other languages instead.
According to the Ministry of Education and Science, there are a total of 4,527 foreign language teachers this school year. More than half, or 2,659 of them, teach English. A third, or 1,183, teach the Russian language. This data and the people behind it will undergo drastic changes three years from now. Namely, as the Ministry of Industry decided, as a second foreign language schools will have to offer one of the EU languages or a foreign language, the learning of which is regulated by the concluded intergovernmental agreements in the field of education.
According to the ministry’s estimates, as late as 2021, half of Latvian schools did not offer the option of a second foreign language at all. Children could learn only Russian in more than 300 schools. “Delfi” explains how and what the schools will offer instead.
2023-09-06 21:02:02
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