Coalition blocks school assessment changes before new year

Latvia’s New Unity party has used its veto to delay education reforms proposed by Education and Science Minister Ilze Indriksone of the National Alliance, LSM reported. The changes would significantly alter how students’ academic performance is assessed from the start of the new school year.

Dispute centres on exams

The proposed amendments concern assessment standards for basic and general secondary education. They would change the conditions for taking and grading centralised exams and remove the minimum score requirement in ninth-grade centralised exams.

“New Unity does not support proposing major changes to the rules one week before September 1,” said Edmunds Jurēvics, head of the New Unity parliamentary faction.

Indriksone said that next year, when students finish school, all centralised exam results would still be taken into account and the threshold would remain the same as before. She said no exam was being cancelled and that an additional natural sciences exam would be introduced for ninth-graders.

National Alliance politicians did not attend a coalition parties’ meeting on Monday, where New Unity blocked the amendments from being considered at Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting. Indriksone said their absence was not a party protest.

“We have a minister responsible for content every week. The responsible minister said there were no urgent issues this week,” Indriksone said. “All young people will take centralised exams. Exams are not being cancelled for ninth-graders; an additional natural sciences exam is being introduced.”

The coalition parties were due to discuss the issue during the week.