Latvia proposes school funding changes without immediate extra costs

Latvia’s Ministry of Education and Science has proposed urgent changes to the “Programme at School” funding model, saying the amendments would not require additional state funding for now, LSM reported.

The new model is due to be introduced at the start of the next school year. It would change how schools are funded: state funding for teachers’ salaries would no longer follow each pupil but would instead finance teaching work in each class group. The state would continue paying teachers’ salaries only in classes that meet the government’s minimum pupil requirements.

The pupil-number requirements have contributed to a wave of school closures and reorganisations across Latvia. Some municipalities have postponed decisions and funded all or part of teachers’ salaries themselves, while waiting for pupil numbers to increase or for the funding rules to change.

Ināra Dundure, an adviser on education and cultural affairs at the Latvian Association of Local and Regional Governments, said municipalities had spent the past three years reorganising their school networks to meet the criteria. She said the proposed amendments would not bring significant changes in many places, but could give some municipalities more time to assess their school networks and decide what to do next.

The proposed changes would apply an easing of the pupil-number requirements to municipalities near the border and to small schools. The ministry is not requesting funding to implement the changes at present, although it has not ruled out the need for additional financing in future years.