Ramona Urtāne: a civil servant must learn to accept decisions she disagrees with

Ramona Urtāne, a senior expert at Latvia's education ministry, has published a personal reflection on the role of civil servants in a democratic government. The piece opens with a memory from three years ago, when after a tense meeting about school network reform she admitted to her husband that she felt worn out by democracy, following clashes with representatives of the education sector.

Experience under three ministers

Urtāne writes that she has worked under three different ministers, each with distinct leadership styles and political priorities. This experience pushed her to reconsider the civil servant's role: professional expertise and conviction do not grant the final word, since political legitimacy in a democracy belongs to elected leadership. A civil servant's job is to warn, object and propose solutions, but ultimately to accept a decision that may not match personal judgment.

Resistance to change, or exhaustion

She also examines the common divide between those who champion reform and those who resist it, suggesting that what is often labeled "resistance to change" in education is sometimes simply exhaustion after years of continuous reforms.

A proposal for the next minister

Urtāne proposes that, over a three-year period, the ministry agree with teachers and school principals on a small number of concrete, measurable goals covering students' learning experience, teachers' and principals' practices, the roles of parents and municipalities, and the ministry's own accountability — with that last point defined by teachers and principals themselves rather than the ministry. She argues the ministry should also publicly report every half-year not only on achievements but also on mistakes made, since trust, in her view, comes not from never erring but from confidence that errors shape future decisions.

The piece closes by returning to the train station memory, with Urtāne concluding that democracy is an uncomfortable system for people convinced they are right — and that this may be precisely why it is necessary.