Until now, parents could enroll their children in an unlimited number of schools. As Laima Geikina (For), Chair of the Education, Culture and Sport Committee of the Riga City Council, explained, this has created an additional burden for educational institutions.
"Experience with secondary school admissions, where there also no limit to the number of schools where you could apply, showed that schools are not coping with these applications, because schools have to respond, have to answer to parents. So by having unlimited applications, we are putting a huge administrative burden on schools," said Geikina.
The amendments to the binding rules also create 30 territorial units instead of the previous 80, which are linked to educational institutions, without further linking territorial units to schools by language of instruction.
The amendments will enter into force in September next year and will apply to the enrolment of children in first grades from the 2026/2027 school year.
