Latvia: a Protocol of Intent to strengthen the Alliance for Quality of Education
On 19 December 2013, the Latvian Educational and Scientific Workers' Trade Union, LIZDA succeeded in establishing an open National Consultative Alliance “United for Quality Education” in response to the EI/ETUCE homonym Campaign.
The partners who joined LIZDA were: the Latvian National Committee of UNESCO, the Parliamentary Education, Culture and Science Committee, the Ministry of Education and Science – MoES, the State Service on Quality Education – IKVD, the Society “Latvian Parental Movement” , the Society “Parental Forum, the Latvian Association of Education headmasters – LIVA, the National Education Center – VISC, The Society “Parents for Education”, the Rectors’ Council – RP, the Riga Pedagogy and Education Management Academy – RPIVA and the Latvian Association of Local and Regional Governments – LPS.
Despite a period of political hurdles, the partners of the Alliance signed on 7 February this year the Protocol of Intent on cooperation within the action “Unite for Quality Education” in Latvia, and agreed on a Working Plan recalling the 10 key messages adopted by the ETUCE Committee on ‘What is Needed to Improve the Quality of Education in Europe?’. The activities foreseen in the plan are ought to arrive until the end the Latvian EU Presidency in June 2015.
The basic objectives of the open Alliance, reflecting into the main tasks embedded into the Protocol, aim at: ensuring sufficient funding for public education, ensuring accessibility to quality education to everybody and quality in-service training for pedagogues.
