Country Digital Education Ecosystems and Governance

A Companion to Digital Education Outlook 2023

Report

13 December 2023

19. Latvia

Abstract

This note provides an overview of Latvia’s digital education ecosystem, including the digital tools for system and institutional management and digital resources for teaching and learning that are publicly provided to schools and educational stakeholders. The note outlines how public responsibilities for the governance of digital education are divided and examines how Latvia supports the equitable and effective access to and use of digital technology and data in education. This includes through practices and policies on procurement, interoperability, data privacy and regulation, and digital competencies. Finally, the note discusses how Latvia engages in any initiatives, including with the EdTech sector, to drive innovation and research and development towards an effective digital ecosystem.

Key features

In Latvia, in general, the responsibility for managing digital tools and resources for education is decentralised. The central government does develop and subsidise some centrally provided system management tools for all educational levels, including VET, but the municipalities are responsible for providing institutional management tools for school education and adult learning.
The country’s Digital Transformation Guidelines 2021-2027 define four main directions for transforming education in Latvia: 1) digitalisation of the learning process; 2) digitalisation of administrative processes (education management); 3) providing digital services based on data analytics; and 4) ensuring openness of educational data.
Among others, the central government’s priority is to develop an early warning that integrates learning analytics data to provide support to learners and prevent drop-out. The Digital Transformation Guidelines 2021-2027 also envision introducing Artificial Intelligence-based tools to support learning and assessment (e.g. distance learning).
Providing every child with a digital device is an initiative that has a high priority on the educational policy agenda. The memorandum of co-operation “Computer for Every Child”, signed in 2021, aims to provide a computer to each student and teacher in the country as well as establish computer libraries in schools.
In terms of education stakeholders’ data protection, there is the Personal Data Protecting Law, based on the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Additionally, the State Data Inspectorate has developed guidelines about data protection of children and students in pre-school institutions and schools.

General policy context

Division of responsibility

In Latvia, the public responsibility for providing the digital education infrastructure is split between the central government and municipalities. The central government provides and subsidises digital tools for system management for all levels of school education and vocational education and training (VET), and it is also responsible for funding the acquisition of other digital tools (e.g. for institutional management or for teaching and learning) for VET and special education institutions. Municipalities are primarily responsible for providing or subsidising tools for institutional management and digital resources for teaching and learning for both school education and adult learning. In general, municipalities provide funding to schools, and schools can autonomously choose and acquire their chosen digital tools and resources. Despite this relatively decentralised approach to managing Latvia’s digital education infrastructure, in recent years some aspects of the management and provision of digital tools have been centralised – for example, the provision of some teaching and learning resources by the National Centre for Education (a subordinate agency of the Ministry of Education and Science).1

Digital education strategy

There are several strategic documents guiding the implementation of digital transformation in Latvia. The National Development Plan 2021-2027 explicitly calls out education and digital skills as one of its priority education and science focus areas.2 The Education Development Guidelines 2021-2027 consider digital transformation as a cross-cutting or horizontal priority in education, emphasising the added value of opportunities provided by technology and digitisation for transforming learning.3 Finally, the Digital Transformation Guidelines 2021-2027 define four main strategic directions for transforming education in Latvia: 1) digitalisation of teaching and learning processes (e.g. simulations, virtual labs); 2) digitalisation of administrative processes (e.g. by creating a modular Information System architecture); 3) enabling digital services based on data analytics (e.g. personalised learning); and 4) ensuring the openness of educational data.4 In line with these strategic directions, the ministry is focusing on transitioning to digital state examinations, developing digital tools for system management (e.g. an early warning system, tools to forecast teacher supply and demand, etc.), bridging the digital divide between different regions of the country, and providing public and easily accessible information on educational institutions. The strategy also envisions introducing artificial intelligence (AI)-based tools to learning and assessment, for example via distance learning. A pilot project in collaboration with Riga Technical University was established in 2023 to conduct research in this area.

In the past five years, the central government has made significant changes to its policy on providing digital hardware infrastructure to schools. Providing every school child with a computer is a high priority on the educational policy agenda. The memorandum of co-operation “Computer for Every Child”, signed in 2021 between relevant stakeholders in the country including several Ministries, the Association of Local and Regional Governments and the country’s President and Parliament, aims to provide each student and teacher in the country with a computer by 2025 as well as establish a computer library in schools.5 The REACT-EU (Recovery Assistance for Cohesion and the Territories of Europe) support measure "Digitisation of Educational Institutions" provides EUR 11 million towards funding the initiative, and in 2022, the government purchased 26 000 laptops for students primarily in lower secondary education (grades 7‑9). The European Recovery Fund will also provide financial resources to purchase portable computers for vulnerable student groups (e.g. students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, students with special needs, etc.).

The ministry is also supporting municipalities in their education digitalisation processes by training educational IT administrators. Local governments are required to have a centralised digital administration, and they must now develop digitalisation plans to be included in their local education development strategies.

The public digital education infrastructure

The section below describes two aspects of the public digital infrastructure in Latvia: digital tools for system and school management, and digital resources for teaching and learning. In Latvia, the central ministry develops and subsidises some tools for system management, whereas the municipalities are generally responsible for providing and subsidising tools for school management and digital resources for teaching and learning.

Digital ecosystem for system and school management

Student information system

The ministry, supported by other government institutions, provides a centralised student information system (SIS) called Valsts izglītības informācijas sistēma (VIIS).6 VIIS contains educational data related to school and VET education to facilitate policy planning and ensure children are registered in the education system. Based on VIIS data, municipalities (and the ministry) can develop and implement measures to improve the quality of teaching, and coordinate the establishment, reorganisation or closure of municipal educational institutions. VIIS comprises several databases including a register of educational institutions, a teacher register and student register for all students in compulsory education, as well as others related to tertiary education. Dashboards are accessible online. Students have a unique and longitudinal identifier in the student register (that is also connected to the digital personal database of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs), and data from the student register can be connected to information in the other databases via students’ learning records.

Administrative and admission management systems

The VIIS system can also be used to facilitate administrative management functions. For example, the central government allocates funding to schools through VIIS and municipalities use the same system to pay salaries to teachers.

The ministry is developing an early warning system, Risku identificēšanas rīks as well as a demand-and-supply forecasting system to manage teacher demand called Pedagogu pieprasījuma – piedāvājuma prognozēšanas rīks.7 Municipalities mainly provide schools with student admission systems (but these are not integrated within any central system).

Learning management systems

Most schools in Latvia acquire their learning management system (LMS) from private companies (e.g. e-klase in schools or mykoob in VET institutes).8 The e-klase LMS allows students and parents to see student grades in all subjects, read teacher reports, see important reminders, follow students’ classes, homework assignments and lesson topics, as well as communicate with teachers and other parents via a customer relationship management functionality. Mykoob similarly enables authorised users to follow student classes, grades, homework and attendance, and communicate with other users. These learning management systems are not necessarily interoperable with publicly provided management systems, but they allow the transfer of student data on assessments and attendance, as well as some teacher-given grades, to Latvia’s student information system (VIIS). Privately acquired LMS tend to be interoperable with other private platforms that produce teaching and learning materials.

The National Centre for Education (a subordinate institution under the ministry) does however publicly provide a Moodle-based virtual learning environment for students at all educational levels, skolo.lv, that contains learning content mapped to the curriculum. The platform enables students to create portfolios of their work and teachers can provide feedback and view analytics data on their students’ engagement. All schools that implement the general curriculum have access to skolo.lv. However, skolo.lv does not enable teachers to grade students’ work nor does it provide a customer relationship management function. As such, many schools choose to acquire additional tools from private companies (like those described above).

Examinations, digital credentials and career guidance

The National Centre for Education currently provides an AI-based proctoring system, ProctorEdu.com, for online exams for various Olympiads (competitive but low-stakes) for secondary education student that is integrates into the Moodle LMS system used to organise the online Olympiads. The monitoring tool features desktop, audio and video recording, as well as biometric verification of users’ identity and real-time behavioural monitoring of sessions (among other features). However, the system currently is not designed to be used for larger-scale, high-stakes state examinations. While some national examinations are currently administered online, the ministry plans to significantly increase the share of computer-based assessments in the country.

The State Education Development Agency (also housed within the ministry) maintains the National Educational Opportunities Database (NIID.lv), a careers guidance platform that provides information to students about study programmes of schools at different educational levels and VET institutes.9 It also offers relevant articles, infographics and career choice tests.

Digital ecosystem for teaching and learning

Digital teaching and learning resources for formal education

The ministry is less active in the public provision of digital resources for teaching and learning, although the Moodle-based virtual learning environment, skolo.lv, provided by the National Centre for Education contains learning content (in both static and interactive formats) is mapped to the curriculum.10 Teachers can readily use resources designed by experts, or modify and create their own. Additionally, teachers can access guided and self-directed professional development content on the platform.

The National Centre for Education also publicly provides the tavaklase.lv study platform that is accessible to the general public.11 This platform contains video-based learning materials for school subjects, mostly targeted at the primary level but including some at the secondary level. It was initially developed as a public resource to support distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the ministry subsequently decided to allocate additional funding to further develop the platform into an online learning environment.

A different open-source platform provided by the National Centre for Education, mape.skola2030.lv, provides teachers with digital teaching and learning materials and sample tests, as well as practical guidance on teaching.12

Self-assessment tools

The European Commission’s MyDigiSkills tool targeting the self-assessment of digital skills has been translated into Latvian and made openly available by a non-governmental IT organisation, the Latvian Information and Communications Technology Association.13 The tool enables individuals to evaluate their skills in the areas of information and data literacy, communication and collaboration, digital content creation, online safety and problem solving.

Access, use and governance of digital technologies and data in education

Providing a public digital education infrastructure does not necessarily imply that stakeholders will use it. Different rules and policies can therefore ensure access to digital technologies in education, as well as support and govern their use.

Ensuring access and supporting use

Equity of access

The 1998 Education Law defines rules around the provision and accessibility of teaching aids including electronic resources, interactive learning platforms, digital and online games, learning management systems, and learning and communication software.14 The Law defines that the central government is responsible for the overall regulatory framework while local governments are responsible for ensuring the accessibility and availability of digital technologies to schools. However, as described above, in some cases the central government also provides digital tools and resources to schools.

The government in Latvia aims to implement policies and support programmes that will improve the equitable access to digital tools and tools for all students, teachers and schools around the country. For example, the “Computer for Every Child” initiative aims to provide each student and teacher in the country with a computer by 2025. Within the framework of the government’s broadband Internet network implementation programme, schools without optical Internet can also be provided with access.

Supporting the use of digital tools and resources

Municipalities provide information resources and advice to schools and teachers on the use of digital tools and teaching and learning resources. The National Centre for Education in co-operation with municipalities across the country also aim to create a network of digital “teacher champions”: by the end of 2022, about 1 370 “IT mentors” had been trained to support other teachers with integrating digital technologies into their teaching practices15.

Various non-governmental stakeholders also support the use of digital tools in education. Ventspils High Technology Park, in co-operation with Ventspils University College and the Latvian Electrical and Electronics Industry Association (LETERA), offers the “Future Class” as a prototype for schools and educational technology developers, providing an opportunity to model a technology-based process in a real classroom environment within practical lessons.

The procurement of public digital technology for schools by the ministry is organised in compliance with the Public Procurement Law.16 In addition, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development has developed public procurement guidelines in the specific context of Information and Communication Technologies.17 These regulations and guidelines include criteria with regard to the interoperability, sustainability and security of publicly procured digital tools and resources. Educational institutions have full autonomy over the procurement of additional digital tools and resources, but the government also provides institutions with procurement guidelines.

Cultivating the digital skills of education stakeholders

In Latvia, there are rules related to the digital competencies of teachers, which are described in the national “Standards of the Teaching Profession”.18 The Standards define expected teacher competences in the context of using digital technologies for teaching. Various government institutions or agencies have also developed guidelines and recommendations for teachers and schools on specific uses of digital technologies in class, notably on the use of technologies in different contexts or providing methodological recommendations for strengthening students' digital skills.19 The Latvian government also subsidises continuous professional development courses for teachers focused on information and communications technology (ICT).20

Latvia has a national target to ensure that at least 70% of adults have basic digital skills by the end of 2027. The laws covering State Basic Education Standards and Programmes and State General Secondary Education Standards and Programmes both explicitly identify digital literacy as one of six, core transversal competencies that should be developed through education, and the broader field of technology (design and technology, computers and engineering) represents one of the seven fields of study that should be offered to students.21 The regulations came into force in September 2020 and the National Centre for Education defined learning outcomes in digital competencies for students in the 3rd, 6th, 9th and 12th grades respectively.

Governance of data and digital technology in education

The country’s Personal Data Protection Law, based on the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), provides for the general protection of personal data and privacy in Latvia.22 In the context of education specifically, the State Data Inspectorate has developed guidelines on data protection for children and students in pre-school institutions and schools.23 The Association of Certified Personal Data Protection Specialists of Latvia has also identified common problem situations on the use and protection of children’s data in schools and has developed public guidelines on data processing in educational institutions.24

In Latvia, the law on State Information Systems requires a certain level of interoperability and openness in public information systems, including those used in the education system.25 Regarding openness, the law stipulates that certain aspects of data from such systems must be classified as generally available information and published in the Latvian Open Data Portal.26 The central government aims to engage in international initiatives to facilitate interoperability between different digital systems, for example by joining the Nordic-Baltic project on cross-border data exchange.27

More broadly, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development (the main body responsible for digitalisation and digital governance in the country) is currently developing general ICT policy and governance principles for digital governance in all public areas, from the development of common national strategic development principles to operational co-ordination and maintenance policies. This includes the development of regulations and recommendations on the accountability of digital technologies and standards of performance of digital technologies.28

Proactive mechanisms for enforcing the rules on the use of education data and digital technology are enacted through the Regulation on the State Education Information System.29 The Regulation enforces the use of VIIS, the centrally provided information system in education, by all education institutions for reporting statistical data as well as providing data that are used to calculate state funding for teachers' salaries.

Supporting innovation and research and development (R&D) in digital education

The Digital Transformation Guidelines 2021-2027 acknowledge that public-private partnerships are required to achieve the goals of the strategy, namely co-operation between the ministry and its agencies, EdTech entrepreneurs, higher education institutions and international organisations.30 One example of such a partnership is the collaboration between government institutions under the ministry with the IT Education Foundation (e.g. collaboration to develop a new computer science curriculum).31 The government provides monetary incentives for the development of digital learning resources for all educational levels by public or private organisations. In the context of VET, it also provides monetary incentives for the development of digital learning resources by individuals, as well as the development of educational software. It also incentivises research and development on educational technologies through a general tax credit scheme for business R-D costs.

There is no specific public agency that specialises in monitoring or conducting research on digital education in Latvia. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the ministry surveyed schools on the availability of digital equipment but such surveys are no longer being conducted.32 The Central Statistical Bureau does however provide statistics on the digital infrastructure of general schools that are publicly available.33

The education faculty of the University of Latvia also actively conduct research and organise conferences on the digital transformation in education. Educational specialists from European countries are invited to present on a variety of related topics, including online media literacy, AI and learning analytics, educational robotics, virtual and augmented reality in teaching and learning, and gamification, among others.34