Publishers reject minister's criticism of textbook quality, blame inconsistent education system

Education and Science Minister Ilze Indriksone (National Alliance) has repeatedly stated publicly that the quality of textbooks used in Latvia is insufficient. This raises a contradiction, however: school libraries are allowed to purchase textbooks with state and municipal funding only if those books have already been certified as quality-compliant by the relevant state education agency and included on its approved list.

This situation raises the question of whether the minister's criticism about low textbook quality is justified, given that the books already on the market have already passed a state review and received official approval.

Publishers push back

Textbook publishers themselves do not agree with the minister's criticism. They argue that the problem does not lie in the content or quality of the books, but rather in inconsistency within the education system itself — namely, that requirements, evaluation criteria, and the overall approach to developing and approving curriculum content change over time and are not applied uniformly.

The question of textbook quality, and who bears responsibility for it, remains a live issue, since it directly affects what kind of learning materials and what level of content end up in the hands of Latvia's schoolchildren.