With the new school year about to begin, Latvia’s coalition partners are divided over amendments prepared by the Ministry of Education and Science (IZM) to the basic and general secondary education standards. The proposed changes would significantly alter student assessment procedures from the next school year, including the rules for taking and grading centralised examinations.
The explanatory memorandum accompanying the draft amendments proposes removing from the basic education standard the requirement for students to achieve a minimum overall score in centralised examinations in order to receive a passing grade in the national examination and obtain a basic education certificate.
However, Minister of Education and Science Ilze Indriksone (NA) expressed a position at the parliamentary committee meeting that differs from the solution currently set out in the explanatory memorandum. She said her position is to retain the minimum threshold for Latvian language and mathematics examinations while removing it for the natural sciences examination.
She explained that Latvian and mathematics are fundamental skills, while the natural sciences examination result could instead be used when assessing students for admission to specific educational programmes, depending on their content.
Indriksone stressed that the final decision on such a solution would still have to be made by lawmakers.
Centralised examinations at the end of Grade 9 would remain compulsory.
The question is whether students would still have to achieve a specific minimum score in order to receive a basic education certificate.
Indriksone also based her position on the results of the latest examination session. In the 2025/2026 school year, 818 Grade 9 students failed at least one centralised examination and therefore had to repeat Grade 9.
Students who have received an annual grade of at least four in all subjects but have failed one of the examinations may continue their studies in a vocational education programme. Currently, they can choose between three qualifications — caregiver, hairdresser or assistant cook. Last year, out of several hundred young people, around 30 chose to simultaneously prepare to retake the examination and obtain a qualification at a vocational education institution.
According to Indriksone, the existing approach has failed to deliver the expected results over the past three years, which is why she does not support postponing the reform for another year. She predicted that raising the minimum threshold from 15% to 20% could increase the number of young people failing to meet the requirement to around 1,500.
The ministry’s proposal also provides for other changes to the assessment system from the new school year, although calls were made during the committee meeting to postpone their implementation.
One objective of the amendments is to abandon the mandatory principle of weighting summative assessments. Current regulations stipulate that greater weight should be given to assessments covering a broader range of knowledge and skills. In future, teachers could determine the weight of each summative assessment where there is a justified reason to do so. The specific procedure would be determined by each school.
Students would also be given broader opportunities to improve their grades. Schools would be required to provide at least one opportunity during the school year to improve a grade in each subject.
Students in Grades 1–6 would be able to improve at least one grade in each subject, while students in Grades 7–9 would be able to improve at least one, but no more than half, of their grades in each subject. The same assessment could be retaken once.
Students with special educational needs would have to be given an opportunity during the school year to improve their summative performance in end-of-topic assessments.
Grade improvement would be linked to further learning, including teacher feedback, additional assignments, consultations and other support measures.
However, opinions differed at the committee meeting over when the changes should be introduced.
New Unity (JV) representative Agita Zariņa-Stūre said the Saeima parliamentary group had met with the Minister of Education and Science last week but had been unable to obtain answers to all of its questions or reach an agreement. The group’s position therefore remains unchanged — JV opposes rushing the process and believes reforms should not be implemented at the expense of quality.
At the same time, the MP said that, in her view, it is currently more urgent to discuss issues related to the introduction of the new “Programme at School” funding model, while implementation of the assessment reforms should be postponed until the 2027/2028 school year.
The board of the Union of Greens and Farmers (ZZS) also decided on Monday not to support what it described as “rushed reforms”. ZZS expects the Education Minister to present the coalition with a reform that enjoys broader support from the public, social partners and education professionals.
ZZS representative Līga Kļaviņa acknowledged that the ministry’s proposal also contains measures worth supporting, such as allowing students to improve their grades. However, in her view, other issues should be resolved before introducing the new system, including the allocation of earmarked state funding and the availability of teaching materials.
Chairman of the Saeima committee Česlavs Batņa (AS) noted that the proposal to change the assessment system has been amended and supplemented since its original version. He acknowledged that he has personally been critical of the current assessment system, which has received both positive and negative feedback from teachers.
At the same time, Batņa stressed that the issue would not be fully resolved simply by adopting Cabinet regulations. For the new system to take full effect, amendments to the General Education Law or the Education Law may also be required, including provisions governing the conditions — the so-called “entry ticket” — for progressing to the next stage of education.
Such legislative amendments could be considered during the term of the next Saeima and could also change the timetable for implementing the reform. Batņa also noted that the possibility of including a reference to the necessary legislative amendments in the Cabinet regulations should already be considered.
According to the government’s agenda, the Cabinet will decide on the amendments to the basic education standard tomorrow, 1 September.
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