According to the data of the Ministry of Education and Science, in the 2020/2021 school year there were about 56,000 teachers working in Latvia. Fewer than 30,000 were general and special education teachers, about 12,000 pre-school education teachers, and about 5,600 university lecturers.
Muižniece thinks that the Saeima will in August support the government's position on requiring teachers to have a Covid-19 safety certificate, but said it can be expected that some teachers leave the education system. the figure of 1,000 was her own estimate.
Speaking about the survey conducted by the Latvian Trade Union of Education and Science Workers, in which a large part of the respondents expressed a critical position regarding vaccination against Covid-19, Muižniece assessed that it was not really clear what the union wanted to achieve with this. She noted that it should rather be working in the opposite direction, namely explaining the importance of vaccination to educators, rather than looking for arguments against vaccination.
Compulsory vaccination of students is not currently on the agenda, the minister added.