Already published in Latvian - and having caused quite a stir - the investigations which are the result of a year-long project can now be read in English at Re:Baltica's website.
"During the last decade, a deep and rapidly growing divide between Latvian schools has emerged. We have schools for the rich and schools for the poor," write reporters Inga Springe and Sanita Jemberga in their introduction to the features.
"In a very worrying development, the pupils in these [rural] schools are rapidly losing out in terms of academic achievements. But, more often than not, these schools serve as a refuge from dysfunctional homes, missing meals and violence. Kids who are not welcome in the city schools and have learning or behavior problems, end up there. But they are not getting good education and the country cannot afford so many schools in places which are dying," they write.
The two investigations are titled 'The Schoolboy Who Burned the Cactus' and 'Islands For The Poverty Stricken' and are recommended reading.
