Teacher training for rural schools is planned

This is the plan of the Possible Mission Foundation, which it will implement in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science, the Riga Technical University and the energy company Enefit.

The program plans to accept 60 potential teachers annually. The first graduates of this program will begin working in schools in the next academic year, going to schools in Latgale and Kurzeme.

Those enrolled in the program in the 2025/2026 school year will work in schools in Vidzeme and Zemgale, and only in the 2026/2027 school year teachers will be trained for schools in Riga and its surroundings. This distribution of new teachers between regions is planned because it is outside of Riga that schoolchildren often have lower educational achievements, which means that regional schools need more support in the fields of exact and natural sciences, or STEM. In addition, schools of national minorities will have an advantage in hiring new teachers.

“Recent research from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development confirms that the achievement of students in urban schools is significantly better than the achievement of their peers in rural schools, which means that each child’s chances of realizing their potential still depend on where they live. Yes, The socio-economic conditions of each family influence the educational achievements of the child, but this cannot and should not be an excuse if in the end children cannot achieve what they dream of,” emphasizes Ramona Urtane, Chairman of the Board of Possible Mission.

It was decided to pay special attention to the training of teachers of mathematics, natural history, physics, chemistry, biology and technology (programming) because schoolchildren do not have much interest in these subjects, and there are not enough workers in the labor market who have mastered STEM subjects at the proper level . According to estimates by the Ministry of Economy, by 2030 the shortage of highly qualified specialists in STEM fields might reach 9,000 specialists.