The Russian State Duma on April 3 published a statement in which it voiced strong objections to new legislation in Latvia that will make Latvian the language of instruction in all state schools other than kindergartens, and called for economic sanctions as a result.
The Latvian government on April 3 upheld the amendments to the General Education Law and the Education Law which, among other things, provide for lowering the school age to six years from the current seven.
President Raimonds Vējonis on April 2 announced he had signed laws approved by Saeima that will see a gradual switch to Latvian-language teaching in schools that now use other languages for the bulk of their teaching.
Currently every tenth student in Latvia comes from abroad, according to an Education Ministry overview for the year 2017. LSM's Andris Saulītis looks at the long-term tendencies in Latvia's education exports.
March 22 saw a meeting of the Education, Culture and Sports Committee of Riga City Council approving regulatory amendments that will mean Chinese language will now be taught in one of the city's schools.
The city library in Valmiera, northern Latvia, has dug up a novel way of attracting readers back to its bookshelves - providing them with a dog.
Students should be allowed to take professional qualification exams and present graduation papers in any official EU language in which the given study program is taught, according to draft amendments proposed by the Latvian Education and Science Ministry to the Education Law, reports LETA news agency February 28.
The Latvian Saeima on February 8 sent language reform amendments for review in the Saeima Education, culture and science committee.
The Latvian Cabinet of Ministers agreed on January 23 to start gradual transition to Latvian as the sole language of instruction in schools on September 1, 2019.
The Digital Forensic Research lab (DFR), an organization that specializes in analyzing online content and flushing out so-called "Fake News" has turned its attention to a series of demonstrations in various countries concerning Latvian educational reform.
On January 22 a public initiative with more than 14,000 was sent to the Saeima asking to preserve bilingual education in Latvian schools.
Latvia has lost around 100,000 of its residents with higher education to emigration between 2000 and 2016, University of Latvia professor Mihails Hazans said in an interview with LNT commercial TV channel January 16.
The Latvian Cabinet of Ministers on January 9 approved the timetable for increasing teachers' salaries, undertaking to gradually increase the minimum monthly wage for educators, making the increase conditional on the results of optimization of the school network.
Riga City Mayor and Harmony party leader Nils Ušakovs during a working visit to Washington discussed the Latvian government’s plans for transition to education in the Latvian language for minority schools, saying that the planned reform poses serious risks to Latvia’s internal stability, Harmony reported.
Several hundred demonstrators performed a lap of Riga's Old Town December 14 protesting against proposed educational reforms that would make Latvian language compulsory for the majority of instruction in the classroom.
Starting September 1, 2019 the Riga municipality will offer extra lessons for Riga minority language students, held in their native language, said Riga mayor Nils Ušakovs (Harmony) appearing on LTV on November 30.
Alumni of one of Latvia's top educational establishments are gathering in Riga for their annual alumni day, which will be streamed live on the internet November 3.
Up to 400 people gathered outside the Education Ministry in central Riga October 23 to protest against plans to introduce the majority of education in the Latvian language at schools currently teaching in Russian.
The University of Latvia has been ranked in 44th place in a list of 250 universities in central and eastern Europe and central Asia, an improvement of three places on last year's 47th slot.
On September 13 the Innovation Center of the University of Latvia and Microsoft was opened, the first center of its kind in Northern Europe, the university said.
Latvian teachers' salaries are the lowest of all the 35 member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) but about 20 percent higher compared to similarly educated workers, according to the latest international report "Education at a Glance 2017: OECD Indicators".
Foreign dentistry students will no longer have to prove their Latvian skills to receive a medical license, the government ruled September 12.
September 1st sees the long summer holidays drawing to a close and the start of a new school year.
While parents and children prepare for the specifics of the start of a new school year on September 1, a wider picture shows a worrying decline in pupil numbers as part of Latvia's long-term demographic challenge.
As many as 18,744 first graders will start school in Latvia this year, according to the Education and Science Ministry’s data.
On 14 August, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs presented award certificates for the United World College (UWC) scholarships to Latvian secondary school students on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the UWC movement in Latvia. Three students will soon be representing Latvia at UWC’s schools and colleges in Armenia, Italy and Norway.
On August 8 Latvia's government supported Education Ministry rules saying students at grade 9 and 12 will have to pass exit exams in Latvian as opposed to minority languages like Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, etc.
Despite falling juvenile crime rates across the country, violence at schools is as common as ever, says Latvia's State Police.
On July 20 the University of Latvia signed a deal worth €30m with the European Investment Bank over funding the second-phase construction of the Latvia Academic Center for Natural Sciences.
The current number of students in Latvia is sufficient for only 130 high schools, a study presented July 20 by researcher Jānis Turlajs suggests. There are currently 313 high schools in Latvia.