Teacher as a Subject of Law in Legal Education Relationship

Abstract

In Latvia, the essential legal aspects of the teacher’s professional activity have been little studied. In short, the relevance of the research and practical nature is not negative. Taking into account several difficult cases in the practice of educational institutions, as well as some legal proceedings in which teachers, educators and parents were involved, it follows from discussions about how the work of teachers, its content, rights, duties, and responsibilities both before and the Covid-19 pandemic are relevant. Although in Latvia, the number of teachers in general education schools has decreased over the past five years, at the same time, these schools form the largest number of teachers, i. e. 21,573 teachers (2020). There were only 2,424 (Official statistics of Latvia, 2021), teachers in vocational education institutions in 2020, and 11,430 teachers in preschool education in the 2019/2020 academic year (Ministry of Education and Science, 2020). That is why general education teachers are the focus of this study. The teacher is both a participant in the pedagogical process and a participant in legal relations. This means that teachers are an important subject of law, who fulfil their rights and obligations. The teacher, together with other subjects of law – the parents of the student, the head of the educational institution, support staff, etc. – are responsible for the result of the educational process. The teacher is involved in professional activities both in the field of children’s rights and in the field of labour, in constitutional and administrative law. Therefore, it is important to know the main rights, duties and responsibilities of a teacher and proposals for improving Latvia’s regulation of Education law.