The Ministry of Education and Science of Latvia continues the implementation of a project to create a monitoring system for education quality. The program, which is set to run until 2029, has a budget of 16.5 million euros, of which nearly half a million has already been used, reports Diena. The work on the system is being carried out with the support of European Union funds. The first phase of the project took place from 2018 to 2023, resulting in the development of monitoring tools for vocational and higher education. Now, the ministry intends to expand the system and adapt it for general education. The new phase started in the autumn of last year after signing an agreement with the Central Finance and Contracting Agency. Initially, the project was estimated to cost more than 21 million euros, but after criticism from industry representatives, the funding volume was revised. Part of the funds — 4 million euros — was allocated to municipalities for the purchase of educational materials. Ten months after the launch of the new phase of the project, the updated and new tools have not yet been presented. According to Inese Vilcini, a representative of the Ministry of Education and Science, the system will consist of three main areas. These are the collection and analysis of educational data, the development of skills to work with this data, and the improvement of management, accessibility, and data analytics. At the same time, the ministry intends to refine the existing tools that were previously created in the form of prototypes. One of the key elements will be a risk identification tool for educational institutions. This tool will be available to the State Service for Quality of Education and municipalities to assess the situation in schools. The analysis will take into account a number of indicators, including teacher turnover, the number of students retained for a second year, the ratio of students to support staff, and the number of confirmed complaints. Additionally, the system is expected to include new indicators that did not exist before. Among them are assessments of the well-being of students and teachers, as well as an index of the socio-economic status of students. This data is intended to be used alongside updated school accreditation criteria. The ministry hopes that upon completion of the project, the system will allow for a more accurate assessment of education quality and timely identification of issues requiring intervention.
