On Friday, 1 March, the “Back to School/Back to University 2024” campaign was launched in Daugavpils. It brought together more than 200 students and 15 expert tutors. One of them was our Director Stefan Eriksson. He was teaching geography, focusing on the most exciting aspects of the Nordic countries.
At the opening event, each subject was taught by well-known people in the region or in the entire Latvia. Most of them are not teachers and standing in front of a class full of pupils is not part of their job description. They way of giving the lesson was not defined, leaving the structure and content of the lesson in their own hands. Some spend this time answering questions of youngsters, others educated, motivated and inspired. Stefan had prepared an eye-catching presentation, which consisted only of inspiring pictures of the Nordic countries. His personal stories and a quiz with books of Nordic authors in prizes kept the audience on the edge of their seat.
On this day, lessons were also moderated by Zane Petre, Head of the European Commission Representation in Latvia; Juris Soms, Professor at Daugavpils University; Agnese Logina, Minister of Culture of Latvia; Uldis Dūmiņš, Director of Zemgale NGO Centre; Gatis Pastars, Principal of Līvāni 1st secondary school; Raimonds Platacis, advertising specialist; Liene Valdmane, Secretary General of the European Movement in Latvia; Andrejs Elksniņš, Mayor of Daugavpils City; Pēteris Dzalbe, Executive Director of the Augšdaugava region; Renāts Cvečkovskis, conductor and composer; Ainārs Pankjāns, Head of Daugavpils Bat Centre; Mairita Folkmane, Curator of Educational Programmes at ROTKO Museum; Olga Tolmačova and Jolanta Reča-Lāže, specialists of the Investment and International Relations Department of Daugavpils City; Viktorija Kozlovska and Kristīna Valaine from Daugavpils Innovation Centre and Sandra Kivleniece, teacher at Līvāni 1st secondary school.
This campaign presents an alternative way to get young people interested in learning and to awaken the thirst for knowledge. This also gives an opportunity for experts to share their experience, knowledge and world view in an unusual format. Besides gaining new insights and experience, this gives local youngsters an opportunity to meet pupils from other schools. The feedback from both students and ‘teachers” on the event was positive and it seemed to be an uplifting experience.
“Back to School/Back to University” campaign was first launched in Germany in 2007 and is now running all over the European Union. Latvia has actively taken part in this for 16 times now. Within those years more than 1000 experts have visited schools and universities, bringing EU matters closer to youth, helping them to explore a wide range of professions and skills, inspire for deciding on the career path, promoting interest in European affairs and encourage active participation in public life.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Latvia’s accession to the European Union. To celebrate this important milestone (and due to the extensive interest among participants) this year there will be 2 stages of this campaign. Part two will take place in autumn. Everyone interested is invited to register until the end of March.
Application for educational institutions
Learn more
1. Video by Augšdaugava Region Municipality (in Latvian).
2. Video by Daugavpils City Municipality (in Latvian).
