After hearing out the report of the Education and Science Ministry to supply schools with study materials, many ministers expressed their confusion in relation to the need of workbooks at schools, which are only there for parents to have extra expenses. As a result, a proposal was voiced to discard workbooks for good.

«Experience shows that the neutral attitude of the ministry towards how workbooks are being used is, most likely, fruitless because workbooks are a very expensive element,»- said Defence Minister Artis Pabriks during the meeting. He called the Education and Science Ministry to propose an alternative offer on workbooks.

He also expressed his confusion in relation to the fact on how often the list of textbooks changes, which also creates additional expenses for parents. Pabriks reminded the ministers of the regulation that was present during the Soviet Era – when all required textbooks were kept in school libraries and pupils used them year after year.

Minister of Education and Science Roberts Kilis explained that the workbook problem will be resolved at the expense of digitizing textbooks. He also said that textbooks are replaced so often because science also changes often.

Healthcare Minister Ingrida Circene believes that education programs change not as often as textbooks. Until textbooks are digitized, the minister proposed introducing a united list of education literature.

Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis was dissatisfied with the report of the Education and Science Ministry’s report, claiming that the government’s questions were not answered. «I do not think that math, physics or Latvian Language change that quickly,»- he says. The head of the government also demanded to give a specific date when the education literature will be available in a digital format. Kilis replied that it should be expected to be completed on September 1, 2013.

Ref: 102.109.109.2370