National defense education will be introduced in schools

VAM will be one of the core courses in the field of Health, Safety and Physical Activity. It will be studied for eight hours one day a month for two consecutive school years. 112 study hours are planned for learning the course.

Schools will be able to choose for themselves whether to implement VAM in addition to the existing student load or on the amount of teaching hours of other subjects. If the dynamics of students’ learning performance deteriorates, the head of the school will be able to change the number of hours in the course, increasing it if necessary.

The Ministry of Education and Science explains that this option was chosen because each educational institution creates study plans with a different number of hours, taking into account the offer of in-depth courses.

The implementation of VAM will take place according to the curriculum developed by the Young Guard Center and the procedure for evaluating students’ learning performance, it will be implemented by instructors of the Young Guards.

In 2018, the Saeima adopted a decision that from September 1, 2024, national defense training will be introduced as a compulsory subject in all educational institutions that implement general and vocational secondary education.

The main goal of this subject is to promote patriotism and provide an opportunity to learn basic military skills, creating citizens loyal to Latvia, which are essential in the context of comprehensive national defense.