Costs for acquirement of early childhood education and care, basic (integrated primary and lower secondary), upper-secondary (general and vocational) education in institutions founded by the state or municipalities are covered from budgets of the state and municipalities.

State education institutions are financed from the state budget in accordance with the annual State Budget Law, while municipal education institutions are financed from the municipal budgets.

Private education institutions are financed by its founders, while the state and municipalities participate in financing if a private school provides accredited basic and general secondary education programmes. If a student transfers to school of another municipality, an interim settlement is made between the respective municipalities.

Funding from the central state budget is allotted annually and divided at the level of local municipalities.

Education institutions may receive extra finances from the following sources:

• Donations and sponsorship,
• Service provision,
• Other sources of income. 

Costs for acquirement of higher education for a certain number of places every year is covered from the budget of the state. For the other places the institution is free to set the fee for education.

Latvia uses financial support provided by the European Structural Funds, particularly for improvement and development of various education-related aspects and issues through tender procedure. 

Expenditure on education (mln euro)

Expenditure on education reflects the expenditure of government, foreign financial sources, households and other private entities on formal education in the reference year. Data on education expenditure are compiled according to the UOE (UNESCO-UIS/OECD/EUROSTAT) methodology with the aim of providing internationally comparable information in the European Union and OECD Member States.

Source: Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia