PROJECT OBJECTIVE

Aiming to purposefully and meaningfully develop the network of education institutions in Jurmala, as a result, according to nationally defined sectoral development priorities and needs of local government, provision of quality education services would be provided as well as enhancement of human resources, use of material and finance resources and improved educational institution infrastructure and material and technical base, Jurmala City Council decided to carry out an in-depth analysis of city’s education sector and to develop an appropriate education development concept from 2015 to 2020 (hereinafter – the Concept. Jurmala City Council entrusted the development of this strategy to LLC “Dynamic University”.

PROJECT SOLUTION AND RESULT

Development of the concept by Ltd “Dynamic University” was conducted from October 2014 to May 2015, organizing the work in three stages: 1) analysis of the current situation; 2) formulation of development alternatives, and 3) Design of the action plan.

Phase 1 of the project development consisted of Jurmala education sector current state description, analyzing city demographics, accessibility, reachability and service quality of education, infrastructure of education facilities, learning environment and materially technical base, teaching staff and overall methodological work of the city, as well as financial resources allocated for the education sector (including future projections). In development of the first Concept phase, following research activities were carried out:

1. Data collection and analysis (Sources: Education Department of Jurmala, Jurmala educational institutions, CSP, CMA, SECC, VISS, etc.).
2. Literature research.
3. The expert interviews.
4. Public poll.
5. Teacher Survey.
6. Infrastructure, material and technical and environmental self-assessments.
7.  Cohort analysis of demographic forecasting.

Second phase of the concept development resulted in generating three alternatives for Jurmala education sector advancement. Alternative identification and analysis methodology was applied, which consisted of the following components:

• The current situation and the context of planning. In this activity a conclusion review of the Conception stage 1 about current situation of education sector in Jurmala as well as an evaluation of global challenges and priorities from higher degree planning documents were made.
• Identification of alternatives. Strategic dilemmas were acknowledged – situations in which a choice between two development options is inevitable. Based on various strategic dilemma combinations, three development models where created for Jurmala education sector
• Evaluation of alternatives. Alternatives were presented and evaluated the customers working group meeting and in a special workshop on February 11, 2015, which was attended by about a hundred representatives of Jurmala educational institutions, Jurmala City Council and Jurmala City Education Department, pupils and parents of students, as well as representatives of the project developer. As a result, the decision was made for the appropriate development alternative for Jurmala education sector.

Based on the decision of the chosen development alternative, an action plan was developed in Concept Stage 3 for the implementation of education development concept by year 2020, including achievable indicators and concept as well as actualization process descriptions. The action plan confirms the defined principles of Jurmala City Education development conception, medium and long term planning documents as well as Jurmala City Investment Plan 2015 – 2017 and the budget of Jurmala city.