Almost 50% of residents consider education quality in Latvia as average

RIGA - Almost a fifth or 24 percent of residents consider the quality of education in Latvia high, while almost half or 49 percent consider it to be average and 21 percent believe that the quality of education is low, according the Education Quality Index collated by the Riga Distance Education Secondary School in cooperation with the SKDS research center.

The study analyzes public opinion of the quality, accessibility and relevance of education to the labor market, calculating the overall education index, which is 55.6 on a 100-point scale.

The authors of the study point out that residents with children or young people who currently study have rated the current education quality in Latvia slightly lower than residents who have no children or young people who currently study.

0.2 percent of residents with children or young people who currently study rated the quality of education in Latvia as very high, 23.1 percent as rather high, 48.9 percent as average, 19.3 percent as rather low, and 4.4 percent as very low. On the other hand, 2.1 percent of respondents without children who currently study rated education quality as very high, 22.2 percent as rather high, 48.2 percent as average, 14.6 percent as rather low, and 3.5 percent as very low.

The study also found that Latvian respondents had a higher opinion of the quality of education in Latvia than non-Latvian residents.

29.8 percent of residents said they believed that the quality of education in Latvia had deteriorated over the past few years, 38.8 percent said that it had not changed, while 21 percent believe it to have improved.

The study was carried out last month by interviewing 1,014 respondents across Latvia.