The actions taken by the Ministry of Education and Science (MES) have not been effective enough to ensure the training of teachers necessary for the education sector and to promote the persistence of teachers in the profession together with the founders and managers of educational institutions. More than 1,000 graduates of teaching curricula are trained every year, and 81% of graduates start working in the sector. However, 33% of young teachers leave the education sector within the first five years. The causes of the lack of teachers are not only the shortcomings of the planning of teacher training and the inability to train the necessary number of teachers, but also other factors related to the support and provision of the teaching work.
BRIEFLY
- The activities carried out by the Ministry of Education and Science have not been effective enough to ensure the training of teachers necessary for the industry and to promote their persistence in the profession together with the founders and managers of educational institutions.
- 33% of young teachers leave the education sector within the first five years.
- Continuous changes in the education system, lack of teaching materials, dissatisfaction with pay, and obscurity of the future (in connection with the planned reforms) are just some of the reasons why the surveyed educators in have wanted to terminate the employment relationship during the academic year 2023/2024.
- The financing model “A student in a local or regional government” does not provide a clear, transparent calculation of financing and is not based on the evaluation of the work of teachers.
- Reorganization of the school network was carried out only “on paper” in some local and regional governments included in the audit sample.
- During the audit, the State Audit Office of Latvia surveyed students of teacher training departments and teachers.
In the audit, the State Audit Office of Latvia has evaluated the planning of the demand for teachers and ensuring the supply and analysed what improvements can be made to take better care of the persistence of teachers in the profession.
“Human resources are an asset that should be taken care of and cherished. Unfortunately, we have concluded in the audit that the management implemented by responsible institutions was not such as to train the required teachers and motivate young specialists to stay in this profession. We conducted a survey of students of teacher training departments and teachers during the audit, in which more than three thousand respondents expressed their opinion. According to the obtained data, the stability of the education system, predictable and consistent development of the system, professional support and provision for the performance of professional duties are the most necessary for educators to continue their work in a school. Naturally, the remuneration is also of foremost importance for the motivation of teachers to work in the education system,” indicated Ms Inese Kalvāne, Council Member of the State Audit Office of Latvia.
The regeneration of teachers is not planned effectively, which would contribute to the training of teachers needed for the sector and their persistence in the profession. The planning of state-funded study places implemented by the Ministry of Education and Science is not based on high-quality and complete data on demand, but basically relies on a number of students who applied and were admitted to teacher training programs in previous years. The number of specialists trained in the last six years is not sufficient for all school subjects. For example, in natural sciences, geography, physics, chemistry and biology, 498 or 8% of educators have reached retirement age and 1,108 or 17% of teachers are close to retirement age, but only 180 teachers have been trained. In its turn, a number of study places for special education teachers and social teachers has shrunk by 72% over the last six years.
Although a head of general education institution is responsible for providing it with teachers, the opportunities to hire a teacher may be affected by deficiencies in the planning of regeneration of teachers. At the same time, the audit concluded that data on the reasons why teachers terminated employment were not collected and analysed.
Continuous changes in the education system, lack of teaching materials, dissatisfaction with remuneration, and obscurity of the future (in connection with the planned reforms) are just some of the reasons why the surveyed educators in have wanted to terminate the employment relationship during the academic year 2023/2024.
On average, 65% of students are already employed in the education sector during their studies. It can be explained by the high demand for teachers and also social and economic conditions. The results of the student survey show that employment of 39% of students have affected the time devoted to studies significantly. In the opinion of the State Audit Office of Latvia, the employment of first-year full-time students, which varies from 0.80 to 0.89 workloads, is remarkably high and has an impact on ensuring the quality of the teaching process.
Although a person who is only studying teaching profession also has the right to work as an educator, until the beginning of June 2024, the Ministry of Education and Science has not developed and proposed amendments to the laws and regulations that would determine under what conditions a person who is only studying teaching profession can work as an educator in an educational institution so that the quality of the teaching process in the educational institution does not suffer, students do not experience overload, burnout and do not have a negative impact on the quality learning of the study program.
It should be noted that the Ministry of Education and Science has taken several actions (measures) to reduce the shortage of teachers in the education sector, but not all of them have been well thought out and effective. Moreover, most of the activities have only started in the school year 2023/2024, which, according to the State Audit Office, are carried out late taking into account the shortage of educators in the sector.
Educators have insufficient professional support, and the competence development offer is only partially based on the needs of educators. The Ministry of Education and Science is allocated funding of up to 1.2 million euros from the state budget every year for at least 8,000 teachers to improve their professional competence regularly.
However, teachers receive the necessary professional development only partially, as the responsible institutions create offers for the development of teachers’ professional competence based on the priorities defined in policy planning documents, without realizing and not determining the actual needs of teachers’ professional development. Only 31% of teachers stated in the survey that the courses attended in the last three years met their needs and provided the necessary improvement of competence. In addition, the State Audit Office of Latvia considers that the responsible institutions do not evaluate the quality and effectiveness of the implemented courses sufficiently to make the necessary improvements. 53% of teachers indicated that the courses did not provide the necessary competence improvement due to their low quality, lack of time for learning them or topics did not meet the needs.
A teacher also needs persons of professional support such as a mentor, a learning consultant, an educational methodologist, a study area coordinator who would help him or her realize his or her professional development needs and provide the necessary knowledge and skills to apply in lessons. However, there is a lack of a systemic approach to professional support measures for teachers in the country, and their availability also depends on the financial capabilities of each local and regional government. In the survey, 79% of educators stated that they had not any cooperation with a learning consultant in the last three years, but educational methodologists were employed in only 31 out of 43 local and regional governments and 119 out of 584 general education institutions.
Social and emotional support for educators is different and partially available. To preserve the emotional health of educators, an emotional support system should be established. The data obtained in the survey evidences its necessity, that is, at least 85% of respondents often feel increased stress caused by the lack of teaching materials, uncertainty about remuneration, disrespect from students and their parents, and disproportionate workload. In their turn, 41% of teachers stated that they had encountered emotional violence in the workplace in the last two years.
Only 47% of teachers have fully paid health insurance provided by local and regional governments. In 2024, approximately 18.2 million euros would be needed to provide health insurance with the maximum allowable premium to all teachers of general education institutions.
Remuneration and workload are key factors that affect a teacher’s desire to stay in the profession. Although the amount of the allocated grant for teachers’ remuneration is increasing every year by reaching 371 million euros in 2023, it has not ensured an increase in the wages of those working in the education sector at least up to the average wage level in the public sector. An average wage in the public sector is 1,397 euros whereas an average wage rate for teachers ranges from 1,257 to 1,780 euros and an average gross wage is from 485 to 1,384 euros.
At the moment, the distribution of teachers’ workloads is up to 65% for teaching lessons, and no less than 35% of the total workload per week for other duties. It does not correspond to the distribution of the workload of educators for the implementation of the new curriculum and approach determined in the project “Competence-based approach in the curriculum”, where it is indicated 50:50. In the local and regional governments included in the audit sample, the distribution of workload per week (65/35) is provided for 22% to 42% of teachers of educational establishments. Ensuring workload balancing is impossible due to the lack of teachers and insufficient funding allocated for workload balancing. It should be noted that only 18% of teachers believe that the workload is currently balanced. In addition, the audit has found that there are teachers who work two, three and even five workloads by reaching up to 196 working hours per week.
The current financing model “A student in a local or regional government” does not safeguard a clear, transparent calculation of financing and is not based on the evaluation of the work of educator, including its nature, duties and other essential criteria. In local and regional governments, an earmarked grant is redistributed from educational institutions with a large number of students (over 600) to educational institutions with a small number of students (below 45) by preventing teachers of educational institutions from receiving more remuneration. Moreover, teachers still find out the amount of their compensation for a new school year only a month after it begins, which makes personal financial planning difficult.
Reorganization of the school network in some local and regional governments included in the audit sample was carried out only “on paper”, that is, not by winding-up educational institutions, but by transforming them into places of implementation of the curriculum of another educational institution. Such an approach does not ensure the formation of a sustainable network of educational institutions in a local or regional government and poses a risk for the economic use of funds for the maintenance of school buildings, instead of channelling financial resources to the increase of teachers’ wages and promoting the increase of their workload to full time. In the educational institutions of the sampled local and regional governments, we also observed that several classes with a small number of students were merged in the implementation of the learning process.
The audit has established that in cases when the reorganization of the school network has actually been carried out, it provided educators with:
- Increasing workload and wage, for example, 40% of teachers of wound-up educational institutions had an increase in workload and 47% of teachers had an increase in wages in Saldus Region;
- An increase in a number of students in other educational institutions and, accordingly, in classes, for example, the number of students increased by 23% in Ezere Primary School in Saldus Region;
- A saving of 329,003 euros Saldus Region in 2023, which was channelled to cover the increase in the wage rate of teachers.
Recommendations of the State Audit Office of Latvia #PēcRevīzijas
By implementing the recommendations provided after the audit, an effective system for planning and ensuring teacher training, a sustainable professional support system, a competitive salary and a balanced workload will be provided, as well as a sustainable network of general education institutions will be shaped.
Additional information: audit report.
About the State Audit Office of Latvia
The State Audit Office of the Republic of Latvia is an independent, collegial supreme audit institution. The purpose of its activity is to find out whether the actions with the financial means and property of a public entity are legal, correct, useful and in line with public interests, as well as to provide recommendations for the elimination of discovered irregularities. The State Audit Office conducts audits in accordance with International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions INTOSAI (ISSAI), whose recognition in Latvia is determined by the Auditor General.
100 years of AUDIT STRENGTH
On 16 August 2023, the State Audit Law turned 100 years old. With the adoption of this Law, the State Audit Office from a formal de facto institution founded on 2 December 1918 became a de jure independent, collegial supreme audit institution of the Republic of Latvia. The State Audit Office is one of the independent state institutions enshrined in the Satversme (Constitution) of Latvia. The Constitution was signed by Roberts Ivanovs as the secretary of the Constitutional Assembly, who was then confirmed as the Auditor General. He worked as the first Auditor General for 12 years. His signature confirmed the text of our Constitution alongside that of Jānis Čakste.
Additional information
Mr Ivo Valdovskis
Advisor to the Auditor General
Phone number: 23282273 | E-mail: ivo.valdovskis@lrvk.gov.lv