To maintain access to secondary education in the border regions, the Ministry of Education and Science (IZM) has reduced the quantitative criteria from a minimum of 60 pupils per secondary school to 45. Although the requirements have been reduced, ten of the 13 border schools in Latgale still do not meet these criteria. There were already concerns in the schools about disproportionate requirements, but this time the Ministry has come up with a special category of accessibility schools.
The Aglona Secondary School in Preiļi currently has 37 pupils in grades 10-12. Along with ten other schools in the Latgale border region, it does not meet the requirement of the new Education Ministry's school network model - 45 pupils in secondary school.
"Since the Andrupene school and Priežmale primary school were closed in the Krāslava region, there are children from those regions. The Preiļi Regional Council sends a bus to bring children to school there," said Lidija Šatilova, the principal of Aglona Secondary School.
The school offers dormitories for children from further afield. A scholarship has also been introduced this year for the tenth grade. Pupils said that it is comfortable to stay in school, the quality of education is high, and higher education is also in their future plans.
"From the beginning, I was studying in the local primary school in Šķeltova. After its closure, I joined Aglona Secondary School. However, this place is known. I know most of the teachers. The transport is also comfortable and well-provided," said Vadims Kozlovs, a pupil of grade 11 at Aglona Secondary School.
"I wanted to go to secondary school because I knew I didn't want to go to the technical college because there would be a profession and I wasn't interested in that profession," said Sintija Gutāne, 11th grade student at Aglona Secondary School.
The situation is most critical in Balvi municipality. There, four secondary schools - in Baltinava, Viļaka, Rekava, and Rugāji - do not meet the quantity criteria. Discussions are ongoing in the local government on which of the schools should be reorganized. In order not to fall into extremes by reorganizing all phases, the Ministry also proposes a separate category of schools as accessibility schools, where the quantitative criterion is even lower. There are already 19 such schools in Latvia.
"If the distance is such that the travel time between schools is longer than 30 minutes, then the school is classified as an accessibility school," said Edīte Kanaviņa, Director of the Education Department at the Ministry of Education.
If a municipality does not want to reorganize a secondary school, the municipality must ensure its operation, the ministry said. In that case, the ministry's current target subsidies will have to be provided from the municipalities' budgets.
