In 2021 a new Law on Administrative Territories and Populated Areas came into force in the Republic of Latvia. To reduce fragmentation, the number of municipalities and State cities was reduced from 119 to 43. There were no changes in 11 local governments, however, other new structures were formed by merging two to eight local governments. On the one hand, these changes are creating new challenges in the education process and institution management, but on the other hand – larger local governments with larger numbers of schools and students opens up new opportunities. One of the opportunity is to make a more accurate assessment of student achievement, which characterizes the performance of a local government’s educational institutions. The aim of this article is to show that despite the great differences between local governments (e. g. population differences from 3 to 614 thousand) it is possible to assess the quality of education in local governments by using data from state examinations and international comparative education studies. Over the last few years Latvia has taken part in IEA (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement), ICCS (International Civic and Citizenship Education Study), PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study), and TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study), as well as in OECD PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment). To obtain the results the data were used from all mentioned studies. This article was supported by European Social Fund project No. 8.3.6.2/17/I/001

The development of the information and communication technologies goes hand in hand with changes in the financial environment, development of the offering and opportunities, and an ever increasing necessity for financial education to develop and advance in the schooling sector. It is therefore essential for school curricula to include the acquisition of knowledge and skills which support the development of financial literacy in order to assure that students are able to take care of their financial wellbeing in the future. The main aim is to find out what financial skills Latvian students need to develop in order to improve their financial literacy.Based on research studies conducted by other researchers, the research study is being conducted to look for the necessary skills and knowledge which financial literacy comprises and which might assure financial wellbeing in the future regardless of the constant development of the financial environment. The data of the Financial Module of the year 2012 OECD PISA study, in their turn, are used to analyse the financial literacy of Latvian students at the age of 15 by finding out the knowledge and skills students in Latvia have with regard to finances. By calculating the percentage of students able to solve the tasks given to them, the research study analyses which tasks Latvian students find difficult and which ones are easy for them. The research study explains what knowledge and skills financial literacy comprises. The results show that Latvian students find analytical tasks difficult, i.e., tasks which require substantiation of their opinion, whereas they find it easier to deal with tasks where use of mathematical skills is sufficient.The possible reasons for the current situation are provided and suggestions for improving it are offered in the research study.

Students’ life in the modern globalized world gives them many new possibilities and at the same time also creates new serious challenges putting forward also new requirements. Students’ understanding of the global problems (climate changes and global warming, global health (including pandemics), migration, international conflicts, famine or insufficient food, the causes of poverty, etc.) become more and more important. The aim of the study is to analyze the results of Latvia’s fifteen years old students in the OECD PISA 2018 in the aspect of the global competence paying a more detailed attention to the students’ understanding of the global problems and their readiness to take action for collective well-being. The research questions are follows: 1) What is Latvian students’ global competence in the international comparison and what is its relation to the characteristics of students, their families and school; 2) What is Latvian students’ understanding of the global problems and readiness to get involved in their solution? The descriptive statistical analysis employs the data from surveys/questionnaires (66 countries) and tests (27 countries) included in PISA 2018 international data basis. Latvian students’ performance in the cognitive test of the global competence is considerably higher than the average of the participating countries, and as regards the OECD countries we are on the average level. In Latvia, students of capital Riga schools have the highest level of global understanding, it is lower in other cities and even lower in rural schools. Latvian students have a slightly lower readiness to get involved in solving the global phenomena and participation in concrete activities than the average in OECD countries.

Students' reading competence determines the achievements of learners in all areas of school education as well as in their further education, professional activity and life. The results of the OECD Program for International Student Assessment - OECD PISA 2018 confirm the need to improve reading competence in Latvia (OECD, 2019).The aim of the study is to analyze the achievement of Latvia's fifteen-year-old students in OECD PISA 2018 and the previous international program cycles in relation to students' reading engagement and its changes. Reading engagement significantly influences not only students' reading competence but are in themselves one of the goals of modern education (Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000; Guthrie, Klauda & Ho, 2013). The study will use the OECD PISA international databases for statistical analysis the data of Latvia and other countries for comparisons with OECD averages, and especially with the attitudes and achievements of Estonian and Finnish students. The analysis of the first results shows that the promotion of reading engagement among Latvian students, especially boys, is one of the factors for increasing reading competence.