Another citizens’ initiative against school network reform has reached the Parliament

The agenda of the May 8 session of the Saeima Mandates, Ethics and Submissions Commission includes the collective submission of 10,424 Latvian citizens “Latvian rural schools – to be!” initial evaluation.

The author of the initiative, Irina Graudiņa, is concerned that the municipalities that make the final decision on closing or reorganizing the school tend not to consider “the basic rights and interests of the children of their own county or neighboring counties”.

She also directs similar criticisms to the municipality of Kuldīga district, which has taken the decision to close the Siegfried Anna Meierovics Kabile elementary school. Graudiņa is a teacher in this educational institution. However, in January, the local government decided that the school would continue its work as usual.

“Municipalities argue that they are being forced to do so by the new regulations of the Ministry of Education and Science, the legitimacy of which is debatable,” says Graudiņa, adding that the government has only accepted the informative report of the Ministry of Education and Culture “Complex solutions for providing high-quality education in general basic and secondary education” for information.

She believes that “there is no excessive sign of equality between the schools slated for closure” and that each case must be evaluated individually, including the possibility of transforming primary schools into primary schools.

The author of the initiative also calls for decision-making to be guided not only by the number of children in the school, as it is variable and in some places shows “somewhat small but increasing trends”.

“We do not deny that according to the rules of the Ministry of Education and Culture, no matter how debatable they may be, the number of children in our school is so significant that the liquidation of schools is the only way to solve the financial problems of the state and municipality [..]without understanding the specific situation,” says Graudiņa.

Saeima commissions have looked at similar submissions before. In February, the deputies got acquainted with the submission of the parents of students of Rudzāti High School and the collective submission of Latvian citizens “Rural small high schools – to be!”. The author of the initiative, Margarita Kolosova, is running for the European Parliament from the list of the New Conservative Party.

This year, the Ministry of Education and Culture coordinated the decisions of local governments on the reorganization or closure of 31 educational institutions. 12 educational institutions or the educational stage implemented by them were attached to another institution.

Last year, 52 educational institutions were closed or reorganized in Latvia.

As reported, the Ministry of Education and Culture intended to significantly reform the school financing model from next year, as a result of which the municipalities would finally have to organize the school network, otherwise the schools that do not meet the criteria would have to be financed by the municipalities themselves, which do not have the funds for this.