The Ministry of Education and Science (MES) plans to establish a mandatory requirement for all Ukrainian refugee children to attend Latvian educational institutions from the next school year, the MES informed.
Kristīne Niedre – Lathere, Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Culture for general education, said that distance education does not provide children with the necessary social contacts, as a result of which children’s well-being and psycho-emotional state suffer. If the children will study in schools in Latvia, they will be able to be provided with the necessary support both in studies and in helping them integrate into society.
The Ministry of Education and Culture offers several solutions to be implemented in schools in order to be more successfully integrated into the Latvian education system. One of them provides for prioritized learning of the Latvian language in a group or individually, determining the number of hours of subjects for individual learning of the educational program, learning all the planned results that the student can achieve.
It is also possible to provide a customized lesson plan for intensive learning of the Latvian language in a group or individually and for the learning of those subjects in which state tests are determined at the end of the education stage – in mathematics, Latvian language, foreign language.
The implementation of the third model, on the other hand, prioritizes intensive learning of the Latvian language individually or in a group. Such a support measure would be implemented for no longer than one school year. The learning of other subjects can be partially implemented.
Starting this school year, Latvia has introduced an inclusive school year for newcomers from Ukraine, where they are offered the opportunity to learn the language before starting regular studies.
The Ministry of the Interior has prepared appropriate amendments to the Law on the Support of Civilians of Ukraine and submitted them for public consultation. They could soon be forwarded to the government for consideration.
The Ministry of Education and Culture has discussed the issue of the inclusion of Ukrainian refugees in the education system of Latvia with the UN Refugee Agency, municipalities, non-governmental organizations and responsible ministries.
Currently, Ukrainian refugee children, while in Latvia, can choose the most appropriate form of education – face-to-face or distance learning. Many Ukrainian children choose distance learning, but this approach does not provide documented information on whether children are included in the Ukrainian education system.
According to the data of the Directorate of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (PMLP), there are 1842 children of Ukrainian refugees in Latvia who are not registered in any educational institution and these children are provisionally receiving their education through distance education in Ukraine.
The child is studying, the image is illustrative. Photo: Unisplash
