“Our strategic goal is to achieve that there are teachers in all Riga schools and preschool educational institutions. We will achieve this with a wide program of activities: popularizing and supplementing the basket of benefits that motivates working as a teacher, organizing conversations and discussions about the prestige and role of the teaching profession in the 21st century, publishing the stories of existing teachers’ experiences and providing extensive support in the field of teaching to those who want to become teachers or want to retrain. I am proud to be a teacher, because I value the opportunity to learn together with children who shape today and the future, and being with children and young people I have the opportunity to preserve the spirit of the youth,” emphasizes Laima Geikina, chairwoman of the Education, Culture and Sports Committee of the Riga City Council.
The municipality, thinking about the issues of attracting pedagogues, has developed a basket of benefits for pedagogues, providing various types of support to pedagogues: discount on fares, health insurance, priority for admission of children to schools and kindergartens, compensation of educational expenses, excellence award for the best teachers. As of January 1, teachers’ salaries have been increased and an additional 16.8 million euros from the municipal budget have been allocated for this purpose.
In cooperation with the University of Latvia (LU), a municipality-initiated activity for pre-school teacher assistants in Riga pre-school education institutions who want to continue their career as a teacher started a year ago. With the financial support of the municipality, teaching assistants obtain first-level higher professional education in the “Preschool Teacher” study program. Currently, 86 economic workers (teacher’s assistants) are studying in this program, they study and simultaneously work as preschool teachers. Also, the municipality provides support to teachers for any kind of retraining.
A memorandum of cooperation was concluded with the LU and the Ministry of Education and Science to promote access to quality education, ensure teacher training and professional development, as well as to maintain motivation to work in the profession.
“The municipality thinks broadly about the issue of attracting pedagogues, the activities of each school, cooperation with the Riga educational and informational methodical center and organizations are also very important to us. At the moment, we are also thinking more broadly about attracting pedagogues directly to STEAM fields. Within the framework of the STEAM program, we meet and cooperate with several universities, organizations and also the private sector, which were active in the field of interest education, robotics and other fields, in order to activate in various ways not only new opportunities, but also to provide teachers with new methodology and support,” says Riga Municipalities Ivars Balamovskis of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports.
Schools also cooperate with each other to support young educators. The “School of Young Teachers” initiative has been launched, the target audience of which are teachers of various subjects who work in the school in their first or second year of schooling. Several Riga schools participate in the initiative. The program is adapted to the needs of teachers who are working in the second year of study in order to deepen the competences acquired in the previous year. Every other month there is a one-hour modeling session where teachers learn from each other.
The Riga Educational and Informative Methodical Center (RIIMC) has been operating and providing support to young educators in the Riga municipality for several years. The main task of the center is to create and professional to strengthen the community of young pedagogues (1-3 years in the education system).so that they feel they belong, needed. By organizing various learning activities, the center helps educators acquire the necessary knowledge and develop skills, professionally support them in solving various pedagogical situations – learning by doing. It is important that everyone who enters the education system also wants to stay there, seeing the result of their work in their students.
The center, first of all, organizes wide and diverse training classes and takes care of professional development of young pedagogues of preschool educational institutions, creates a community that helps teachers find each other, share experiences, successes and challenges, offering a wide and varied curriculum. During training, each teacher has individualized support. During the last year, 88 young preschool teachers have participated in the training organized by RIIMC. Secondly, to support schools for the inclusion of new teachers and their professional support, the RIIMC has established a program to strengthen the activities of mentors. It is important that each school has a clearly established support system for the inclusion of the new teacher, support mechanisms that take care of the new teachers, creating an inclusive environment. The turnover of young pedagogues in schools tends to be quite high, the schools themselves understand that the biggest responsibility in attracting pedagogues and long-term cooperation lies with them. The well-being of the new educator and the existing one can only develop if there is an inclusive and supportive environment and operational mechanisms that can keep this person.
Thirdly, the priority of RIIMC is the preparation of future leaders of educational institutions. “It is very important for us to prepare, support and create young, eager, active and development-oriented leaders of educational institutions, both in preschools and schools. We are grateful to everyone who wants to accept this responsible challenge of leading people and growing, and we are proud to have these new leaders and directors and young educators. The task of the Riga Education and Informational Methodical Center is to take care of every pedagogue so that they feel useful, needed and improve their professional skills,” says I. Draveniece, director of the RIIMC.
Photo: https://flickr.com/photos/103426396@N05/albums/72177720315943114/
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The information was prepared by: Sindija Grāvere, project coordinator of the External Communication Department of the Riga Municipality Communications Department, phone: 26207745,
e-mail: [email protected].
