Some 2,700 Latvian 8th graders took part in the IEA (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement) study in spring 2023. They completed test tasks in computer literacy and algorithmic thinking.
In the computer literacy assessment, Latvian students scored 509 points, 7th among 31 countries. According to the IZM, this is a very high score and above the average score of the Member States (476 points). Only South Korea, the Czech Republic, and Denmark performed significantly better.
Meanwhile, the average score of Latvian students on the algorithmic or computational thinking test is 495, the 9th highest among the 21 Member States. Latvia's performance in algorithmic thinking is also higher than the overall average (483 points), the IZM noted.
Latvia's 8th-grade girls' average performance of 520 points is the 3rd highest among European countries, behind the Czech Republic (527 points) and Denmark (531 points).
Latvian girls' performance in computer literacy is significantly, or 22 points, higher than boys' performance, while in the algorithmic thinking test, girls' and boys' performance in Latvia is the same (495 points).
The study shows that in Latvia, the impact of students' socio-economic status on their skills performance is small - meaning that schools provide the same quality of education to students from families of different wealth levels. However, there is a large performance gap between state grammar schools and other schools in Riga, says IZM.
