Latvia has yet to find extra funding for school materials

Latvia has not found additional funding to prevent a cut in state support for pupils’ learning materials next year, the Ministry of Education and Science says, LSM reports. The annual allocation per pupil is currently 35.20 euros and could fall to 21.80 euros.

The teachers’ union called for more funding over the summer, and more than 5,500 parents have backed a similar request on a public initiatives platform. The ministry says it will try to address the problem with support from European funds.

Teachers and administrators at Riga State Classical Gymnasium say there are not enough learning materials for all pupils and subjects, even though the school recently received supplies. Staff have to decide what is most necessary to buy. In some subjects, the school has stopped providing workbooks and instead gives pupils materials to copy into their notebooks or otherwise work from.

Printing and copying worksheets for a large school is expensive, so teachers also look for digital resources. Physics teacher Veronika Bite said the school could not provide books for all its 10th-grade classes, which include seven groups.

Bite said good materials in science, technology, engineering and mathematics are still being developed, despite the competency-based education approach having been introduced several years ago. The gymnasium’s director said the constant search for resources adds to teachers’ workloads and can contribute to burnout.

A mother of three from Rēzekne is collecting signatures for increased funding for learning materials on the Manabalss.lv platform, the article says.