Education and Science Ministry proposes to give up principle "money follows pupil"

RIGA - The Education and Science Ministry has developed a proposal of three models for calculating teachers' wages, proposing to give up the current principle "money follows pupil".

In recent years, there have been different attempts to find the optimum model for calculating wages for teacher, and the discussion have been resumed this year.

Education and Science Minister Anita Muizniece (New Conservative Party) explained at the meeting of the Latvian Association of Education and Science Workers' (LIZDA) board that on September 1, 2022, the approved schedule for raising teachers' wages expire, and the ministry should work on further steps in this matter.

The goal of the ministry is to ensure support to pupils in obtaining high quality education, at the same time, achieving higher wages for teachers.

Muizniece presented three possible models for financing education.

The first model would mean a transition to principle "money follows class", based on calculating financing for a class at school. At the same time, she said that this would not solve the long-term problems of school network and would not motivate local governments to ensure efficiency in education.

The second model would follow principle "class in the municipality" that would motivate local governments to optimize the school network and promote responsibility for education quality. Local governments would play a bigger role in ensuring high quality education. Local governments would receive funding only for certain groups of costs.

The third model would provide for calculating the average costs needed for educating one pupil and target subsidies distributed to local governments. The local governments would then develop their own strategies for ensuring education quality and maintenance of the school network, providing for close cooperation among all stakeholders.

Muizniece herself believes that it would be more sensible to select the third model, but no decision have been made so far and the minisry is open for discussions with social and cooperation partners on the best variant.