Students rally in Riga to demand more funding for education

Around 1,000 students staged a rally outside the parliament building here on Monday to demand more funding for higher education, local media reported.

Morning Panorama program of Latvian Television aired footage of hundreds of students from Latvia's university cities Ventspils, Rezekne, Liepaja and Riga gathering in the morning to march to the parliament house where lawmakers were about to hold the first reading of Latvia's 2017 budget.

Although the demonstration was only expected to gather some 700 people, the number quickly grew to 1,000. The square in front of the parliament building was so crowded that the rally expanded to nearby Dome Square.

Joining the protest were also students from private colleges and academic staff.

Latvian finance minister Dana Reizniece-Ozola, who had arrived to talk to the protesters, assured the students that government-funded tuition would not be cut in 2017.

After their rally by the parliament house, the students marched to the finance ministry and then to the education and science ministry.

"The aim of the march is to show our politicians the need for targeted investment in higher education. For a long time, higher education has been neglected because of insufficient political will and financing," Maira Belova, the leader of the Latvian Students' Association, said, referring to findings by OECD and World Bank experts.

The students' association organized the protest after the education and science ministry proposed to save budget funds by cutting government-funded tuition to Latvia's universities in order to provide more money for academic staff salaries.

Latvian education minister Karlis Sadurskis said on public television on Monday that no tuition cuts were being planned for next year and that funding shortages would only begin in 2018 and 2019. Nevertheless, the minister promised to do everything to provide the necessary funding by that time. Endit