Education and Science, EU – Baltic States, Latvia

As LETA was told at the Education and Science Ministry, over 90% of schoolchildren communicate in several languages also in countries like Croatia, Malta and Estonia. 

In Latvia, the competence of 15-year old students is consistent with the OECD average, according to the latest PISA 2018 results which have been released on Thursday. 

Among the 27 OECD members and partner states whose schoolchildren took part in the global competence assessment, Latvian 15-year old students ranked 9th overall with 497 points.

Schoolchildren from Singapore achieved the highest score (576), followed by teenagers from Canada (554) and Hong Kong (542).

The Education and Science Ministry indicated that in OECD member states and partner countries language learning is widely available. Only 12% of 15-year old students in these countries indicated that they are not learning any foreign languages, while 50% of youngsters are learning two or more foreign languages. In Latvia, the share of such schoolchildren is 94%.

The surveys conducted as part of the study show that more than 53% of Latvian youngsters want to explore other cultures and more than 75% are informed about such global challenges like famine and poverty.

Nearly 72% of schoolchildren have knowledge of gender equality in various parts of the world and 75% said they could explain climate change and its impact on various countries and 58% could explain the impact of economic development on the environment.

In comparison with youngsters in other OECD countries, Latvian schoolchildren's performance was weaker in areas like understanding of other people's world views and perspectives, as well as action concerned with common good and sustainable development, the ministry informed.