2023
Increasing the minimum hourly rate and harmonizing the workload for preschool teachers
Amendments to the Regulations on Teachers' Work Remuneration provide for an increase in the minimum salary rate for preschool teachers. The amendments were approved with the aim of balancing the workload and remuneration of teachers at all levels of education, as well as increasing the lowest monthly salary rate for teachers of preschool institutions. Starting from September 1, 2023, the workload composition for preschool teachers is determined, which provides for 34 hours for teaching and 6 hours for performing other duties (4 hours in 2022).
2022
Strategic planning for early childhood support
In December 2022, the Government adopted the Child, Youth and Family Development Guidelines. The guidelines cover several topical, horizontal, and cross-sector development directions in children, youth, and family policy, such as strengthening the need for early childhood policy, ensuring the development needs of children and young people, creating an early preventive support system, health, education, psychological and emotional well-being.
Critically important are the first three years of a child's life, when the child's development occurs most rapidly. Providing support during this period can have a positive impact throughout the rest of a person's life. Evidence also shows that effective early intervention is critical and can improve a child's life chances at any stage of childhood or adolescence.
In Latvia, it is planned to create and provide a comprehensive range of preventive support services by 2027. It envisages the introduction of parenting skills programs, including providing support to expectant parents and prioritizing very young parents without family support, as well as supporting parents who experience postpartum depression after the birth of a child or have difficulties in forming an emotional attachment to a child. When creating the early preventive support system, it is planned to adapt and implement in Latvia several prevention and early intervention programmes that have already been proven in global practice, such as Incredible Years, Nurse-Family Partnership, Early Birds, KiVa, Cool Kids.
One of the cross-cutting tasks of the strategy is to develop flexible ways of exchanging information and decisions between inter-sectoral and inter-institutional specialists, management and cooperation algorithms for multi-professional coordination of children's cases, which should be equally applicable to the entire broad field of ensuring children's rights as a whole, starting with early (preventive) detection of developmental risks, early preventive support for all children, as well as the field of protection of children's rights.
2021
Pre-school starts to assess the special needs of children
From September 2021, pre-schools are starting to assess whether a child who will start the compulsory education program at the age of five does not have individual special needs, such as the need for the support of a speech therapist, social pedagogue or psychologist. The pre-school teacher will assess the child and the child's parents will be informed of the results.
The assessment methodology is defined by the Cabinet of Ministers Regulation No. 453 “Methodology for Assessing the Special Needs of Learners in Pre-school Educational Institutions” (the Regulation in Latvian language). It should be noted, however, that these are temporary provisions that will remain in force until the end of 2023.
During this time, a new, scientifically based special needs assessment methodology for children aged 1.5 - 6 will be developed, within which teacher training and the development of support materials are also planned. Thus, in the future, it will allow special needs to be assessed in pre-school from the age 1.5.