| Abstract: | Education may be Latvia's most important public enterprise. As in all democracies, the public must understand and agree on the policies that guide it. More discussion of education issues is needed in Latvia prior to making changes in education policy, not after them. The aim of this article is to help stimulate some of that discussion. It draws heavily on prior analyses circulated by the Ministry of Education and Science, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Bank, and the United Nations Development Programme, as well as on policy research sponsored by us. The Soros Foundation - Latvia (SFL) hopes to distribute reports annually on more specialized educational problems. However, no report can cover all issues of importance. This article tries to cover selected issues in primary, secondary, higher, vocational, and adult education, as well as on teachers and education research. Serious difficulties exist in every area, and they must be addressed quickly. At the end of this article, 10 recommendations are offered. Each is important, but the public could add many more. If that were to occur, we would feel that this report was a success. |
