Riga City Council

Education, Culture and Sports Department of Riga Local Government (further – the Department) is a municipal institution that handles matters related to pre-school, general and professional (Arts, Music and Sports) oriented education, culture life in the city, youth work and sport activities. One of the functions of the Department is to manage pre-school and primary education and to provide secondary education for all children residing within the administrative territory of the City of Riga. The Department oversees 101 general education schools (incl. gymnasiums, secondary schools, elementary schools and primary schools, special educational institutions and development centers) with 68 thousand students. 155 pre-schools with 25 thousand of children. Out-of-school and vocational education is provided by 9 music and art schools, 10 sports schools, 8 Riga Municipality’s out-of-school education institutions, 23 leisure centres. 7 thousand teachers work in Riga schools and 3 thousand technical personnel. Age group of students are from 1,5 till 7 years old at pre-schools, and from 7 till 19 years old in general education schools. The annual budget for the education needs amounts to 33% of the Riga municipality budget or 465 MEUR. Therefore, the competence of the Department includes the organization of budget and investment planning and maintenance of subordinate institutions, compilation of the annual budget and investment projects intended for education, culture, youth and sport. In order to implement the areas within the competence of the Department, the following units operate in it: Board of Education, Board of Culture, Board of Sports and Youth, Administrative Board, Board of Finance (includes Unit of EU and Investment Projects), Board of Legal Security and separate structural units: Audit and Revision Unit, Personnel Unit and the Director's office. The department employs 156 staff, 3 persons of them directly work with EU projects.

The Department coordinates and supervises the professional development of the staff of educational institutions, their methodological work. The Department tries to identify the best teachers experience and promotes the exchange of best practices. The Department has wide knowledge of spreading of the information in the field of education, teachers information campaigns, involvement of support staff as researchers and developers.

Catering has been a function of the municipality since the restoration of independence in 1991. 2022-2024 the Department implemented the Interreg Baltic Sea Region project Innovative Strategies for Public Catering: the Expansion of the Sustainable Public Meal Toolkit (StratKIT+) which aim is to elaborate and pilot the best methodologies of public catering and mapping Crises Management Action Plans in public sector. It is important to continue this topic regarding healthy meals and emphasize the role of schools not only in providing food, but also in educating about the need for healthy and age-appropriate food and share examples of good practice with other EU member states.