There is a shortage of Latvian language teachers in Riga schools - Vice Mayor 0 22

According to Kirsis, with the transition to teaching only in Latvian, problems may arise in about a third of all schools in Riga — as well as across the country. Moreover, difficulties are also present in those schools where instruction was previously conducted in Latvian, but where a large number of students, mostly Russian speakers, have now enrolled.

The shortage of teachers is acutely felt in all schools, and the lack of Latvian language teachers is particularly noticeable — especially in those schools where instruction was previously conducted in Russian. According to Kirsis, the municipality is currently working on new tools to improve the situation, including introducing additional payments for those teachers who are willing to teach Latvian and take on extra responsibilities in schools where instruction was previously conducted in Russian.

The problem is further exacerbated by the fact that a large portion of Russian-speaking students do not speak Latvian outside of school, so the municipality is looking for ways to expand the Latvian-speaking environment, for example, by offering a wider range of extracurricular activities, noted the representative of the council.

Kirsis acknowledged that in some schools, the reform may only have been implemented on paper — in practice, instruction there is still predominantly conducted in Russian. However, the municipality is monitoring the situation and seeking solutions.

In the near future, the Riga City Council expects more detailed conclusions from the State Service for Quality of Education regarding the progress of the language reform implementation, so that further changes can be planned based on them — up to the closure or merging of individual schools if serious and unresolved problems are identified there.