Latvia's literacy gap: educators warn of a steep leap from preschool to school

PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) results published in September showed that reading, math and science skills among 15-year-olds in Latvia are the lowest since the country began participating in the study 25 years ago. Since reading ability underpins learning in other subjects too, media and experts have been searching for causes, pointing to competency-based education reforms, the shift to a single language of instruction, and the growing role of technology in children's lives.

First-graders arriving without knowing letters

A first-grade teacher at a Riga school says that for the first time in her career, about a quarter of her students started school without recognizing letters — and this isn't limited to children from non-Latvian-speaking households. She recalls a girl from a Latvian family whose parents had not worked on this skill at home, noting that schools no longer have a dedicated period for teaching the alphabet.

A steep jump between two stages of education

Kristīne, a preschool teacher with six years of experience, and her mother Ināra, who has worked in preschool education for more than 45 years, say there is a large gap between the outcomes expected at the end of preschool and the skills required in first grade — with only one summer separating the two stages. Both argue that stronger, more systematic bridges should be built between preschool and school.

Parental involvement seen as key

In Kristīne's group of 20 children, who will finish preschool next summer, five are struggling significantly with letters, four already read well, and the rest are progressing. She stresses that reading development is closely tied to parental engagement — after a meeting where she told parents this was the final year to teach children to read, one girl proudly reported the very next day that she had read her first word.