RIGA, Oct 7 (LETA) - Half, or 53 percent, of new teachers in Latvia could leave the profession in the next five years, according to the Teaching and Learning International Survey TALIS 2024.

This is the highest rate among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. Latvia is followed by the other Baltic countries, with 50 percent of teachers under the age of 30 in Lithuania and 49 percent in Estonia saying that they could leave the profession in the next five years.

However, the study has also found a number of positive trends in Latvia's teacher community, even though many school principals point to a shortage of teachers and say that efforts to retain young teachers in the profession will continue.

According to the survey, 62 percent of teachers in Latvia have more than 20 years of teaching experience. Most are in the pre-retirement age and will soon retire.

By contrast, 13 percent of teachers are young, with teaching experience of five years or less. The highest proportion of young teachers is in large urban schools, 17 percent, and the lowest in rural schools, 12 percent.

78 percent of Latvian teachers who started working in schools in the five years prior to the survey had participated in formal or informal induction programs in their schools. This is an increase of 35 percentage points compared to 2018.

83 percent of new teachers work in schools that offer mentoring programs.

The survey covers 54 countries. In Latvia, 215 teachers and 213 school principals took part in the study.